"Terror Gap:" We Should Not Surrender Our Rights Because of Terrorists
The Brady Campaign, in addition to several other gun control advocacy groups, including Mayors Against Illegal guns, have latched on to this new "Terror Gap" issue, which advocates using the federal government's "no fly" list to deny gun purchases for American citizens. No one wants terrorists getting a hold of guns and other dangerous objects, but in the battle against terrorism, we should be careful not to surrender our rights and liberties, including our Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm for self-defense or recreation.
Currently federal law prohibits people convicted of certain crimes, or who have been adjudicated mentally defective, from purchasing or possessing a firearms. But a key aspect with either of these two situations is that the prohibition is not applied until the person has been convicted or adjudicated through due process of law. There are no such protections against getting added to the list, and no defined process for getting oneself removed. There have been a number of prominent individuals who have found their way onto the terror watch list, usually because they share a name with a terror suspect or his alias. Famous people who have ended up on the list are Composer John Williams, the late Senator Kennedy, and dead guitarist Robert Johnson, along with anyone unfortunate enough to share their names. Numerous problems with the no-fly list are probably why even liberal groups like the American Civil Liberties Union believe the list is unconstitutional.
There might be some disagreement and difference of opinion about exactly what our Second Amendment rights mean, but one would hope that most Americans would agree that no right explicitly protected by our Constitution can be removed or abridged in the manner the Brady Campaign suggests. We can be pretty sure that when our founders wrote "shall not be infringed" into the Bill of Rights, they didn't mean subject to cancellation at the whim of an unelected government bureaucrat with a list.
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with your premise ....we should never just lay down our rights in the name of security ....all liberals agree with this.
Liberals were the first to SCREAM about the stupid 'no-fly' list. It was/is childish and foolhearty.
However, you (your position) may gain more followers if you reframe front setting it up as an us versus them when really it is all us against (them) terrorists.
"We Should Not Surrender Our Rights Because of Terrorists"
Yes, I've been saying this since 2001. You're a little late to the game.
I'm glad that you're informed about the issues with the terrorist watch list, but wouldn't you rather FIX THE PROBLEM rather than whine about it once it comes knocking at your door? Americans with common Muslim names have been plagued by this shoddy list for years. We need to make it more accurate, not run and hide from it when it looks our way.
First of all, I do agree with what your article. But implying that liberal groups don't normally support the bill of rights is, frankly, a load of crap. Who were the first ones to speak opposition to the No Fly List, well before the 2nd amendment was brought into play? The "liberal groups." What about the so-called Patriot Act? Yep, "liberal groups." To be frank, outside of the 2nd amendment, conservative groups have a terrible track record when it comes to the bill of rights over the last decade.
Many liberal groups have a hard time remembering that the 2nd Amendment is a part of the bill of rights, this I won't deny. But many conservative groups have a hard time remembering that the 2nd Amendment isn't the ONLY part of the bill of rights.
Conservatives are very big on the 2nd amendment... but when the other amendments come up they are often quite silent.
I just watched Michael Moore's movie, "Bowling for Columbine".
Moore is a loathsome pig of a man - obnoxious, rude, manipulative, deceitful...
But one point he made in his flick made a sense.
We Americans permit ourselves to be scared of everything. Forget "terrorists" in the sense of someone who is going take over a plane and crash it into a building. Don't worry about the terrorists who are going to try to blow up their shoes or their underwear. These are not the terrorists you really need to worry about, because, as much as they might want to create a big splash and kill Americans, they do less damage than the terrorists we welcome into our homes every day.
Local news broadcasters THRIVE on terrorism . And elected government officials are full of dire (if enormously overblown) prognostications of doom. These people are the ones creating TERROR in America. These are the people who make you so afraid that you will practically strip at the airport, dance around with your arms in the air so some TSA pervert can look at your naked body with his x-ray machine. These are the people who propose a "National ID Card" so they can track everyone, everywhere - supposedly to make us safer, and slacken the flood of illegal aliens... something that happens because of their incompetence. Instead of sending 100,000 soldiers to burn up hundred$ of billion$ of your tax dollar$ bombing mud huts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to secure the border between Iraq and Iran, why not put the soldiers on OUR borders to defend OUR country?
Terrorism is a real concern - but let's do some triage here. Which threat is truly greater? Prior to 911 the federal government 's approach to terrorism was the same as police recommendations in cases of robbery - don't resist. Give the bad guy what he wants and just hope he doesn't hurt you. Can you even imagine ragheads with box cutters being able to take over an airliner today? They'd be torn to shreds.
And even on 9/11 , they would have failed - miserably - if we hadn't been long programmed by the Domestic Terrorists (politicians and newsies) not to resist, to leave our defense to the "professionals".
I say we need to throttle back the home-grown terrorists, the ones you see on television and whose salary you pay in Washington, before we submit to any more infringements on our liberty.
Write you local station. Tell them you're sick of their wild-eyed coverage intended to frighten people. Vote AGAINST the pigs in Washington who are simply feeding at the public trough (filled with your tax dollars). Do MORE than vote . CAMPAIGN TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. And don't think that "Democrat" or "Republican" makes a difference. Those are just antiquated tribal designations designed to get you to vote for things you don't understand or believe in. If you don't KNOW the candidate under "DEM" or "REP", then vote for a third party. ANY third party is better than continuing the incestuous rape of America that is currently going on in Washington (and has been for decades).
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. But think about it. Are you better off today than you were 5 years ago? 10? 20? Will you be better off in 5 years? 10? 20?
If not, then you need to help CHANGE things.
We should not give up any of our rights in the face of terrorism , not just the right to bear arms.
Justice Learned Hand once wrote:
"When the right to travel freely within one's own country is curtailed, all rights are threatened."
Additionally see Amendment 4, U.S. Constitution : "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects from unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized."
One can order a pocket-sized aluminum copy of the Bill of Rights to keep in your wallet ( www.securityedition.com ). It's guaranteed to set off the metal detector alarms every time you carry it through. They're relatively inexpensive, so one can purchase several. The TSA thugs will insist that you trash it prior to allowing you to board the plane. Just think, agents from our own government forcing you to trash the Bill of Rights. However, before handing it over to the TSA halfwits, one might choose to read the 4th Amendment aloud to all of the people waiting in the boarding line behind you.
"Who is John Galt?"
John Galt was a literary character... and a psychopath.
Sir, our nation's founders were guilty of treason against the British Crown. If you assess the literary character, John Galt, to be a psychopath, then how would you characterize the British citizens who fired upon and murdered a number of their own own British soldiers, who had been lawfully assigned to confiscate the privately-owned arms, powder and shot stored near Lexington and Concord (i.e. "the shot heard 'round the world")?
The Revolutionary War was fought between soldiers, not against civilians.
The true Irony of Atlas Shrugged is that the Liberatarian-Capitalist paradise comes about only through the birth of a post scarcity economy (the creation of virtually unlimited energy ).