Today I’m proud of the real liberals standing against authoritarian gun control

Aaron Jones June 21, 2016 No Comments

On Monday, the Senate voted down an amendment that would have barred gun sales to “terrorism suspects” or those on the Federal Government’s no-fly list. You can, of course, predict the reaction from many on the left…and we’ll get to that. However, it was a clarifying moment for the few liberals out there standing against regressive thinking.

I must say, I’ve never been more proud of my real liberal friends standing against statements like this from Senator Elizabeth Warren.

That’s right. To be a good (regressive) liberal these days, you’ve gotta embrace the same kind of thinking that brought us the no-fly list of the Dick Cheney era. And it goes without saying, you can forget about due process.

Here’s to the good liberals standing against babyish thinking. I’m just gonna post a few things I’ve seen…

First, I obtained permission to share this from a friend of mine, Travis Lampke via Facebook:

I find myself in a difficult position. While I am absolutely in favor of changing our country’s policy on gun sales and taking steps to ensure they do not fall into the wrong hands, I cannot help but be relieved that the Senate measures that were on the floor today failed.

While it seems at first glance to be a complete no-brainer to restrict sales of firearms to individuals on the terrorist watch list the implications of what such as restriction would mean scare me. We have seen the list put into action before. The “No-fly” list. This list is beyond scary to me. There have been many individuals who have found themselves on the no-fly list with no explanation. Infants, young children, people that have similar types of names to known terrorists, people with “Muslim-sounding” names, hell… Ted Kennedy was placed on the list. Once on the list, you have no right to know why you were placed on the list. There is no appeals process to have yourself removed from the list. Once on it, you are on it until some nameless bureaucrat removes you.

This is not considered a violation of your right to Due Process. Because air travel is considered a privilege, and not a right, it has been determined that restricting the ability to travel for people who have never been accused, let alone convicted of a crime is legal.
This is where my concern about the recent Senate bills came in. D.C. v. Heller affirmed that the Second Amendment does protect an individuals’ right to to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful purposes. Many disagree with this decision. I personally am still undecided. But the reality is that the right to own and bear arms is a Constitutionally protected right, and will be until a new Amendment is either passed, or a future Supreme Court decision supersedes Heller.

Restricting the purchase of firearms from individuals who may have found themselves on the “Watch List,” whether on it deservedly or not, comes across to me as a violation of these individuals’ right to due process. How is it legal to restrict a Constitutional right of an American citizen, potentially for life, when that person has never been accused or convicted of a crime, and may never have had any interest in doing so.

We would be saying that it is okay for a mid-level employee of the CIA, the FBI, the NSA, or the DHS making an entry on an Excel file and then “poof.” You no longer have one of your Constitutional rights. You don’t get any recourse. You can’t appeal the decision. You can’t fight it. You can’t even find out why this is happening.

I want gun control to happen. I want things to change. I want the gun show loophole closed. I want mandatory background checks to be required for even person to person sales. I want bans on high-capacity magazines. I want waiting periods. I want this all to stop.

What I don’t want is a degradation of our Constitutional rights. While I hate to put out a “slippery slope argument,” once this precedent is set, once we allow rights to be removed without any oversight or recourse, what stops the next one? What happens in a few years, after a major terror attack and suddenly, the Fourth Amendment is out the window for people on the “list?” What if it’s the Sixth? What happens…

It’s not only liberals. This guy claims to not be a liberal…just another authoritarian.

Back to the brave, Glenn Greenwald:

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