Dianne Feinstein’s Plans For Guns And The “Terrorist Watch List”
BY Herschel Smith
8 years, 6 months ago
Remember when we said this:
They will go after you by the terrorist watch list, the no-fly list, and any other assortment of executive powers and decisions and regulations and rulings. They will never confiscate your guns. They will prevent you from renewing your driver’s license, your hunting license, your fishing license, your professional license, your bank cards, your concealed handgun permits, and in short, all the framework you have built your entire life as a law abiding, peaceable citizen. Then they will go after your wife and children and their ability to enroll in education. They will go after what matters most to you.
Scott Shackford and Jacob Sullum reporting at Reason do some very good investigative work on this very subject.
Under Feinstein’s 2015 bill, the attorney general can stop the transfer of a firearm if he “1) determines that the transferee is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support or resources for terrorism” and “(2) has a reasonable belief that the prospective transferee may use a firearm in connection with terrorism.” The amendment Feinstein introduced last Wednesday, by contrast, lets the attorney general block a sale if he “determines, based on the totality of the circumstances, that the transferee represents a threat to public safety based on a reasonable suspicion that the transferee is engaged, or has been engaged, in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support or resources thereof.”
In the revised version, there is no additional requirement that the attorney general have reason to believe the weapon the suspect is trying to buy will be used in a terrorist attack. Hence an old lady who cut a check to a Hamas-affiliated charity (thereby “providing material support” to terrorism and arguably threatening public safety) could be stopped from buying a handgun for self-defense even if there was no evidence that she planned any sort of attack with it. Feinstein’s amendment also expands the dragnet beyond the FBI’s so-called Terrorist Watchlist, which is believed to include more than 1 million people, to cover anyone who was under investigation for “conduct related to a federal crime of terrorism” during the previous five years. The Justice Department would be notified of attempted gun purchases by people who fit that description, giving it a chance to block the sales.
Frankly I’m not concerned about the little old lady who wrote a check to a Hamas-affiliated charity. What concerns me much more is that there is no due process, no chance for trial by jury. The federal executive is the only sovereign, the singular potentate behind these decisions.
That means that if you’re an NRA member, or a patriot, or you believe in the second amendment and your God-given rights to own firearms, or believe that gun ownership is the best surety against tyranny, the executive might just label you a terrorist or low-level extremist, and prevent gun purchases. He might also garnish your wages, prevent driver’s license renewal, prevent renewal of your professional license, or remove your children from the home and place them in the custody of DSS.
Do you get the impression that someone wants you to be disarmed and controlled?
On June 22, 2016 at 6:42 am, Frank Clarke said:
All the more reason to make sure your next Chief Executive is a (small-L) libertarian.
And the one after that, and the one after that, and the one after that…
On June 22, 2016 at 9:03 pm, Deserttrek said:
i wish that were true .. gary johnson and weld are both anti firearm ….. but agree with the sentiment.
On June 22, 2016 at 7:43 am, Fred said:
Nobody that wants you defenseless is your friend.
We thought we had won but they’re not done yet.
Contact your senators please 202-224-3121 and tell them No gun control. No secret lists. No Collins-Ayotte amendment.
And then email them. All the Senators have contact forms on their respective web pages and the NRA (I know, I know) has an alert with form mail https://act.nraila.org/takeaction.aspx?AlertID=273
On June 22, 2016 at 8:11 am, theBuckWheat said:
At the core of the Second is an acknowledgement of the unalienable right for citizens to retain and possess the means to make good on the clause in the Declaration of Independence that
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it Is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”
It is easy to see that the government that citizens attempt to abolish will interpret their attempt as an act of “terrorism” It is getting easier and easier for governments at all levels to define terrorism and terrorist acts down, so it will easier and easier for citizens to be charge with terrorism and thus to be permanently disabled from the RKBA.
Watch lists, especially ones with zero judicial oversight are a trojan horse.
On June 22, 2016 at 1:10 pm, Blake said:
I live in CA. I don’t suspect anyone is trying to disarm me. I know someone is trying to disarm me.
As bad a Governor Brown is, he’s nothing compared to Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris. My wife and I are hoping to have moved out of state before the unholy duo of Harris and Newsom take the reigns of power.
On June 22, 2016 at 1:25 pm, Herschel Smith said:
Please do. Do so ASAP.My wife and I are hoping to have moved out of state before the unholy duo of Harris and Newsom take the reigns of power.”
Please do. Do so ASAP.
On June 22, 2016 at 8:24 pm, Phil Ossiferz Stone said:
Same here. I don’t want to be the enemy of a state and a people that says it’s okay to chop you boy’s junk off and send him to school in a dress, but not okay to own the #1 selling longarm in America — and has the smashmouth power of the state behind both of these postmodern memes.