Paul Ryan Balks Over Blocking Gun Sales To People On Terror Watch List

[applegrove]

Paul Ryan Balks Over Blocking Gun Sales To People On Terror Watch List

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and ALAN FRAM at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/guns-terror-watch-list_564fec70e4b0258edb31b652?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP...............


Republicans took advantage of voters' newly aroused security concerns this week, when they easily pushed legislation through the House preventing Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the U.S. until the administration tightens restrictions on their entry.

That issue put Democrats on the defensive. Forty-seven of them voted for the bill, ignoring a veto threat by President Barack Obama, who said the current screening system is already strong and accused Republicans of fanning fear among worried voters.

Democrats are hoping to turn the political tables on Republicans by focusing the debate instead on terrorists' access to guns.

"I think this is a no-brainer," said Feinstein, a longtime gun control supporter. "If you're too dangerous to board a plane, you're too dangerous to buy a gun."



................SNIP"

[onehandle]

1. Our second in the line of succession stands with the terrorists.

International and Domestic.

[pipoman]

2. This is so simple....one doesn't, shouldn't, and can't lose

their civil rights/liberties without due process. Cheney's no fly list is only constitutional because flying isn't a right, it's a privilege.

Supporting such an arbitrary violation of civil liberties isn't even a little liberal, democratic or Democratic.

[linuxman]

3. This place sure loves civil rights

until it's civil rights for people they don't like.

[petronius]

4. From the article, this part I agree with:

The FBI is notified when a background check for the purchase of firearms or explosives generates a match with the watch list, and agents often use that information to step up surveillance on terror suspects.

A NICS access seems like an appropriate datapoint for investigators. But I'm very leery of (suspicious of, opposed to) any expansion of the use of these secret lists, to further limit civil rights/liberties or basic privileges.

This part was interesting to me:

About 420,000 people are on the list administered by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, though only about 2 percent of those are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents legally able to buy guns.

That 420,000 is substantially lower than I've seen elsewhere, and I'd not seen before a percentage of US citizens/residents. If it's really as low as 2%, and if the 420,000 is correct, that's only 8400 citizens/residents. A really small number of people who would be able to buy a firearm in the first place. I think we should be critically questioning these lists in general, but another question that arises is: "Is it really worth allowing a secret government program to take precedence over and undermine the BoR, just in case some of that tiny number of people may be up to no good?"