Some Good News

There’s a fair amount of GOP Congressmen that are defecting from the NRA-backed Coburn style terror watch list proposal, meaning Ryan doesn’t have the votes to pass it. This revolt is being lead by the House Freedom Caucus.

“If the bill becomes law, it will mark a massive expansion of the government’s ability to restrict gun rights on the basis of precrime—a crime not yet committed,” Freedom Caucus member Justin Amash (R-Mich.) posted in a lengthy diatribe on his Facebook page. This bill “is the actualization of dystopian fiction.”

Added Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.), another Freedom Caucus member: “If it is a suspected terrorist and we have evidence to that extent, then Logic 101 [suggests] that person should either be in jail or out of the country.”

And in those two lines, you basically have the “law and order” versus “civil libertarian” division in the GOP. I completely agree that even delaying a sale 72 hours is denying someone due process unconstitutionally. It would seem to me many of the anti-gun Dems want to hold out for a harsher bill, which few Republicans will support. Combine that with the Freedom Caucus opposition to the bill and I don’t see how this passes. Let us hope.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. Terror Watch List is a Horrible Issue for Us
  2. Uberpost on The Great Kerfuffle of Last Week
  3. The Tabled Bill

9 thoughts on “Some Good News”

  1. Brat pointing out the obvious. If there’s enough evidence to start stripping rights, there’s enough evidence to arrest and indict….

  2. It’s Cornyn that introduced the terror watchlist bill. Coburn’s was regarding creating a background check system that private people could use.

    Should this pass, I predict the FBI would create a new “double secret” terror watchlist bill for the real terror suspects, while this one will be used for those domestic right wing don’t tread on me “terrorists”. The FBI has already said that this could compromise investigations, and that there is a need for watch people and not let them know they are being watched. Actual terrorists will have a good way of vettibg their people by having them try and buy a gun before involving them in any plots. Due process should happen BEFORE denying/delaying rights. It’s quite simple.

  3. Amash has been and may be still is under threat by the Chamber of Commerce that primaries him He does need help

  4. The question is, does Ryan and the Vichy Republicans + the Democrats = enough to pass this bill?

    1. No, because very few Democrats will vote for it. They’d rather point their finger at Republicans for blocking gun control to rile up their base in an election year. The fact that they voted against gun control is irrelevant to their base, and to lefty media.

    2. I think they are afraid of the optics of “being in favor of selling guns to terrorists,” and of being “in the way” and “unwilling to compromise.” I also think they are making a big mistake. I’m a member, but not a voting member* ()–so my opinion does not count very much.

      *I joined the democrat party, mostly because the local Republicans won’t hang out with me (and are nearly exclusively part of the religious right, which I won’t be caught dead with) but the Dems will, and are good company to boot. Then I had to join the NRA to cancel out the polarity. Now I need to join the ACLU to cancel out THAT polarity. After that, probably the Club for Growth to cancel that out…it never ends!

Comments are closed.