When you hear the term “red flag law” today, you think of rules or regulations that allow governments to seize guns from people who pose a danger to others. But back in the late 1800s, its meaning was very different.

The first red flag law in the older sense of the term dates to 1865 in England. The object was not guns but cars.

In their 2006 book, “Controlling Environmental Pollution,” P. Aarne Vesilind and Thomas D. DiStefano offered a glimpse of the law’s purpose:

Shortly after the first steam-powered and very noisy horseless carriage appeared in England, the British Parliament in 1865 passed the famous Red Flag Law, which required a man to precede a horseless carriage on foot, carrying a red flag by day and a lantern by night. The primary aim of the law was to warn people about the

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