From the Amendment II Democrats blog:Okay, folks, we've got yet another bill we need to gird ourselves against - S 1237, known as the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) introduced this bill on April 26. According to Lautenberg's website, the Senator stated, "It took years, but the Administration finally realized that letting terrorists buy guns is dangerous. This 'terror gap' in our gun laws has been open too long and I am going to shut it down."
So what's wrong with preventing terrorists from obtaining firearms? Nothing whatsoever. But what's wrong with S 1237?
Plenty.The text of S 1237 states that the bill would give the Attorney General the "discretionary authority to deny the transfer of a firearm or the issuance of a firearm or explosives license or permit when a background check reveals that the purchaser is a known or suspected terrorist and the Attorney General reasonably believes that the person may use a firearm or explosives in connection with terrorism..."
In short, if Alberto Gonzales - the same Alberto Gonzales who declared that provisions of the Geneva Conventions were "quaint" and had the gall to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that there is "no express grant" of habeas corpus in the Constitution - decides that you, a law-abiding American citizen, are actually a terrorist, then you are barred from owning a gun. No due process, no investigation, no nothing. Your Second Amendment rights are terminated by Gonzo's say-so. Period.
The bill does provide what are supposed to be "due process safeguards" that allow those affected by Gonzo's denials to challenge his ruling, but other provisions by S 1237 make it extremely unlikely that anyone will ever find out why they've been put on a "terrorist watch list" in the first place. And really, considering Gonzo's track record on due process and his own lack of respect for the rule of law, the text of S 1237 should set off alarm bells throughout the Democratic community, not just among pro-gun Democrats.
Then again, Gonzo might just as easily assign this loathsome task to an underling like Kyle Sampson or Monica Goodling. Why start doing any actual work now?
While researching this bill, I was reminded of some statements by Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, in which he supported banning anyone on the Federal "no-fly list" from buying firearms despite the fact that the no-fly list has reportedly ensnared many innocent Americans who have done nothing to be labelled as terrorists. Mr. Helmke, if you or one of your fellow Brady Campaign activists are reading this, when exactly
did the concept of "innocent until proven guilty" become anathema to the American experience?
Here's a radical thought. Maybe the Democratic Party shouldn't let Republicans such as Alberto Gonzales or Paul Helmke dictate how Democrats in Congress are going to handle gun legislation. We control the House and the Senate now; I trust we Democrats have enough collective brainpower on Capitol Hill to chart our own course by ourselves.
And one good way to start is by denying the Federal government the ability to create yet another watch list that denies people their Constitutional rights without oversight, without accountability, and without any regard for the "inalienable rights" that we all share.
We should target S 1237 with exactly the same impunity and urgency with which we oppose HR 1022, which would reinstate and strengthen the semi-auto ban. In the case of S 1237, however, the real danger is that the very existence and makeup of the Second Amendment's "well-regulated militia" will be subject to the whims and prejudices of one human being.
Eternal vigilance, fellow Americans...
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