Posted on 06/23/2016 4:03:26 AM PDT by Elderberry
Earlier this week four different gun control bills were predictably voted down in the Senate. Now, as Matt has reported, Senators will vote on yet another piece of legislation introduced by Maine Republican Susan Collins.
"The bipartisan 'Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act of 2016' would prevent people who are on the No Fly List or the Selectee List from purchasing firearms. If our government has determined that an individual is too dangerous to fly on an airplane, that person should not have the opportunity make a legal firearm purchase," Collins office released yesterday in a white paper. "Due process principles require that Americans denied their right to purchase a firearm under this provision have the opportunity to appeal this denial to a federal court."
"To ensure appropriate oversight and transparency, the Attorney General would be required to report to the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees of the House and Senate on the number of persons denied a firearm, the number of appeals filed, and number of persons who prevailed in their appeals under the provisions of this Act," the memo continues.
By Collins' own admission, this proposal still strips due process and takes away Second Amendment rights before an appeal, boiling down to an absolute bureaucratic nightmare. Although Collins' effort to prevent terrorists from purchasing firearms is noble, her amendment is an absolute nightmare for innocent Americans who end up on these secret, government terrorism no-fly and "selectee" lists.
First, let's look at the details:
What the Amendment Does:
1. Gives the AG the authority to deny firearms sales to individuals who appear on the No Fly List or the Selectee List.
2. Provides a process for Americans and green card holders to appeal a denial in U.S. Court of Appeals and to recover their reasonable attorneys fees if they prevail.
3. Sets forth a procedure for protecting classified information during the appeal.
4. Protects ongoing FBI counter-terrorism investigations by giving the AG the discretion to allow gun sales to go forward to individuals covered by this Act.
5. Includes a “look-back” provision that ensures prompt notification to the FBI if a person who has been on the broader Terrorism Screening Database (TSDB) within the past five years purchases a firearm.
And the rebuttal:
1. The Attorney General will now determine who is or is not a terrorist and incapable of purchasing a firearm? Doubtful. The No-Fly and Selectee list are already poorly managed, are full of Americans in addition to foreigners and the Attorney General doesn't have the resources to analyze 109,000 people individually in order to deny or approve a gun sale.
2. After being stripped of their Second Amendment rights for landing on a No-Fly list, Americans can retroactively seek due process through appealing a denial in court. Further, attorney fees can be recovered so long as a a defendant wins their case against the U.S. government? After hours, days, weeks and potentially years spent buried in paperwork, government bureaucracy, missed work, stress and thousands of attorney's fees to prove innocence? How generous....Americans can't even get through the DMV in a timely fashion, not to mention getting through a court appeal with the federal government after being improperly placed on a secret list.
3. If classified information is involved in an appeal and must be protected, it will be impossible for a regular, every day American who is innocent but on the lists to make their case and quickly win an appeal.
4. Again, the Attorney General does not have the resources to get involved in the minutia, especially with a list containing thousands of names.
5. This is the best part of the proposal, but the problem of innocent Americans being on the list again strips due process.
The bottom line is that until Congress can clearly define a process and standard for which people are placed on the terror No-Fly list, Terror Watch list or Selectee list, innocent Americans will be punished and stripped of their rights due to a bloated, bureaucratic system. The lists must be cleaned up and tailored to fit those who are truly associated with terrorism before we can prevent them from legally purchasing firearms.
This is a nightmare. And blatantly unconstitutional.
Denial of the right to keep and bear arms is a universal element of enslavement.
And I'm reminded of a certain Nietzsche quote:
“Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar.”
If that person can’t fly, can’t buy a gun, WHAT IS HE DOOING LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ME? (Tucker Carlson)
It is now to be used as a proxy for a Court of Law, a way to flag anyone as a potential enemy of the State without any Constitutional concerns or protections.
Innocent Americans who do not travel by air or purchase a firearm could go through their entire lives not knowing they are considered potential terrorists by the government of the United States.
Ignorance is not bliss.
This is just another political weapon for demonrats. Republicans won’t and can’t use it because the bureaucrats would not cooperate.
I have every confidence that the government will quickly exploit this law to add all NRA members, tea party members, Freepers, etc to this list with maximum speed as soon as the law is passed. The DHS has many times told us they think the real danger is right wing people who believe in the constitution and do not like our oppressive government.
This list will quickly balloon to include 10s of millions of us who have nothing to do with terrorism.
As House Republicans Move To End Sit-In Over Gun Control, Democrats Reportedly Chow Down On Some Chick-fil-A
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2016/06/22/as-house-republicans-move-to-end-sitin-over-gun-control-democrats-chow-down-on-some-chickfila-n2182433?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad=
Cut off the AC, showers, change of clothes, RR is a bucket in the corner, security details, do not feed them and no pay checks. Let them stew in their own BO.
Giving future AGs a CYA when someone 'slips by through the cracks' despite multiple red flags. IOW, when another Mateen comes aling, they have an excuse.
Mateen acquired a security/class g license in Florida. That was all he needed.
I wonder if he acquired that license at the same time he became radicalized.
Not sure that's an accurate list, but I do think this ... the more severe the penalty, the more likely the government is to use the tool. It's much more meaningful to deny a person the right to defend themselves, than to merely deny them the right to commercial air travel.
Two principles that rarely fail. Follow the money. And, It's all about control.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Returning to a dark chapter in the nation's history, the Senate released thousands of pages of transcripts Monday from closed-door, anti-communist hearings of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
The hearings reveal a new side to McCarthy's 1953-1954 crusade, conducted at the peak of the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Some of the hearings were public and some televised, but 395 Americans were interrogated in secret hearings, facing accusations from McCarthy and his staff about their alleged involvement in communist activities.
"Today, by providing broad public access to the transcripts of this era, we hope that the excesses of McCarthyism will serve as a cautionary tale for future generations," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said at a news conference.
"And by making these transcripts [available] -- not just to scholars who go to the archives, but to everyone who wishes to see them -- we hope to further educate the young people of today about this very unfortunate chapter in American history."
Collins is chairwoman of the Governmental Affairs Committee. McCarthy chaired that committee's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to pursue his anti-communist crusade, which was later widely discredited as a witch hunt.
As I said on another thread, so many innocent Americans will be added to no-fly list a new Federal Agency will be established to handle appeals.
Appeals which will fail because when investigating an appeal, anything in one’s past can be twisted to illustrate why someone should not be allowed to purchase a firearm.
Given the way the 2nd Amendment is worded I'm not 100% convinced the feds can deny anyone the right to own firearms. This nightmare is guilty until proven innocent. No way.
This places the burden of proof on the appellant, which is not where it belongs. The government needs to establish a clear and present danger before restricting any citizen’s constitutional rights, and should suffer harsh penalties if it errs. The citizen should not have to establish his right to keep and bear arms; it already exists as a birthright.
This legislation is clearly written by someone who has no understanding of law or the Constitution, or else has a not-so-hidden agenda.
As I recently mentioned in another thread, there’s a town in PA where the antique and secondhand dealers are required by law to submit all their business records to the local police on a regular basis.
The rationale is that their business is full of mischief; lots of stolen goods being fenced by those antique shops.
Well, nobody’s ever challenged the law, to my knowledge; they just closed up shop. However, it does give me an idea.
Why not propose a law that all senators and congressmen submit all their personal financial records, during their tenure, to some oversight agency to protect the public from the financial mischief that might be occurring at the hands of public servants?
It ought to be public knowledge, what a public servant has upon being sworn in and what the “take” is and where it comes from. If there’s any unfair enrichment going on, such a law would probably slow it down a bit.
They should have to account publicly for every penny, with a yearly full audit.
Even for “Maniacs Collins is a bit too much!
Your powdered wig is showing. As Ninotchka observed, "Your type will soon be extinct."
“No guns for terrorists sounds good until they start making out conservatives to be terrorists.”
They already do.
Forsooth, ye speak the truth, good yeoman. I hail from a different age, one I fear is vanishing amid the indulgent tyranny that marks the present.
Way past time to take down Susan Collins.
Convicted without trial. King George the Third has won.
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