2016 – Page 19 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Expanding the Surveillance State

Republicans do love themselves some law and order. The reason I am worried about this one is that both parties covet their secret lists and neither cares all that much for civil liberties. Plus, American Populism is on the rise again, and that particular school of thought has always favored law and order over civil rights.

Whether we want to admit it or not, Trump’s instincts on this have a home. There’s plenty of people out there if you said, “Well, what if someone proposed a law that no one on the terrorist watch list could attend mosque?,” wouldn’t see any problem there. But I will say that at least the populists are consistent.

Arrests Made Outside of NRA HQ Protest

Code Pink and a few other groups apparently decided to sleep outside of NRA Headquarters to protest for a ban on assault weapons. Things were going fine until the next morning they whipped out red paint. They were charged with loitering on the public highway. I can’t tell if the issue was the red paint, or they were blocking the road. In the pictures, I don’t see any red paint on the road.

New “Bipartisan” Bill Introduced To Ban Those on No-Fly List

Guilty until proven innocent is what this is, and if this were introduced as a bill to prevent people on these lists from publishing, attending mosque, or using social media, there would be outrage, and justifiably so. The people behind this affront to constitutional liberties:

Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND). So much for her holding firm.
Kelly Ayotte (R-NH)
Martin Heinrich (D-NM)
Jeff Flake (R-AZ) WTF? He must love himself some “law and order” and secret lists. This is the kind of stab in the back I’d expect from McCain!
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Dude is an AR-15 shooter. For real. He also must love himself some secret lists and “law and order.”
Angus King (I-ME).

The no-fly list itself ought to be viewed as an unconstitutional infringement on the right to travel. This bill doesn’t have a number yet, but get ready to call your lawmakers and demand they vote no. There’s enough leftist groups uncomfortable with this crap that they have no excuse to vote yes.

Note now there’s an assumption that “if you can’t board a plane in this country, you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun,” as if it’s perfectly accepted that the government can keep secret lists of people that interfere with the right to travel. See how they did that?

~~Note Pat Toomey isn’t on this list.~~ Must be an election year, or his bill is coming soon.

UPDATE: Toomey has announced he’s supporting this bill.

Illegal Immigrant Attempts To Kill Trump

Probably not the nationality you’d expect though. Several reports say he attempted to grab a police officer’s handgun that was not secured, but initial reports are often full of unsubstantiated details.

OF course, this was a nominally gun-free zone, and the guy’s plan relied on the fact that it was being enforced by people with guns…

(My local media are playing up the fact that the attempted shooter was a resident of Hoboken for a while. Why that has any relevance, I’m not sure).

Not the Last We’ve Seen of Gun Control – More Coming This Week

If you haven’t called already, it’s not too late. I’m told that yesterday’s amendments offered are not the last we’ll see of gun control in the Senate, and that more votes are very likely this week. Keep the pressure on.

Gun Control Measures Fail

I am quite pleased to report that all four proposed gun control amendments (to an appropriations bill) have failed:

Chuck Grassley (R-IA) floated an amendment that would sweeten the pot yet again for states to report records to NICS. It failed 53-47, needing 60 votes to invoke cloture and pass. This was largely a party line vote, with only Kirk and Gardener voting “no,” and with Donnelly voting “yes.”
Diane Feinsten’s (D-CA) Amendment to prohibit suspected terrorists from possessing firearms failed outright 47-53. Kelly Ayotte, was the only Republican to cross the aisle and vote “yes.” Toomey was a “no.” Heitkamp was the only Dem to cross and vote “no.”
John Cornyn’s (R-TX) Amendment, which would have delayed purchase 72 hours to give the FBI a chance to act also failed 53-47. Jeff Flake crossed the isle to vote “no.” with the Democrats. Voting yes with the Republicans were Donnelly (D-IN) and Manchin (D-WV). I’m not going to hold it against anyone for voting “no” on this, but now we have the Dems on record as rejecting any compromise solution.
Chris Murphy (D-CT) proposed an amendment that would ban private transfers. It failed outright 44-56, party line. Kirk (R-IL) crossed to vote “yes” with the Dems. Heitkamp (D-ND), Tester (D-MT), and Manchin (D-WV) crossed the aisle to vote “no” with the Republicans.

Pat yourselves on the back, even if your name is Pat Toomey. He voted with us where I expected he’d vote against us. Must be an election year! Bloomberg is going to be one sad panda.

More Felonies Committed By Media

UPDATE: It would seem Steinberg was denied by the gun store rather than NICS, based on publicized history. In this case, no crime was committed.

Neil Steinberg tries to write one of those gotcha stories on how easy it is to buy a gun in America.Â The only problem is that the sale was denied because Mr. Steinberg apparently has a history of alcohol problems and domestic abuse. The even better part is that he bitches about it, and accuses the shop of bias against journalists:

I told her I assume they wouldnâ€™t sell me a gun because Iâ€™m a reporter. She denied it. But hating the media is right behind hating the government as a pastime for many gun owners. They damn you for being ignorant then hide when you try to find out.

What a tool. I guess this is a situation where you can ask whether he’s stopped beating his wife. It’s worth pointing out that he committed a felony by attempting to buy the firearm in the first place. Again, I can pretty much guarantee you he’ll get the David Gregory treatment.

The Chicago Sun Times isn’t the only felons out there.Â Just like the Philadelphia Inquirer last week, CBS News would also seem to have committed a straw purchase. In this case, after seeing the report where CBS admitted they bought the gun rather than the journalist, the gun dealer ratted them out to the ATF. Good for them! Again, I fully expect the David Gregory treatment, but its worthwhile pointing out how easy it is to commit an unintentional felony if your familiarity with gun laws is lacking.

Take Action!

Just a reminder, if you haven’t already, contact your lawmakers. NRA has a handy method to do it quickly, but sending your own usually has more impact. Every person who writes gives more leverage to the lobbyists on the Hill to beat this crap, and it’s all crap. Tell your elected officials to vote for none of it. They already rejected the compromise offer, so screw them. Tell them no more gun control. Period.

Supreme Court Denies Appeal to Connecticut Assault Weapons Ban Case

The Supreme Court has denied cert in Shew v. Malloy, the challenge to Connecticut’s enhanced assault weapons ban, which was passed after Sandy Hook. This will leave the ban in place. It’s probably the best possible outcome after losing Scalia, so we shouldn’t be too disappointed this was the result. It would have been far worse for cert to be granted and to lose the case, which we probably would have.

Reading the tea leaves a bit, which is always dangerous, this at least tells me the four Dem appointees on the Court probably aren’t interested in taking Second Amendment cases while the court is split four to four.

Unintended (Or Perhaps Intended) Consequences of Terror Watch List

I wanted to elevate this commentÂ from Divemedic the other day to a full blown post, so folks could understand how this could end up playing out if the Dems, Toomey and Bloomberg get their way:

My son is on [the Terror Watch] list. He is listed as a suspected terrorist. He was even visited by DHS agents, and his passport was revoked.

Now, I raised my son better than that, and he is most certainly not a terrorist, so how did he wind up on that list?

My son is a travelling nurse. He flies all over the world, treating and transporting patients from one place to another. It pays very well. He recently got paid for a 4 day trip, escorting a patient to Australia, and was paid $4000 for 4 days’ work. This week, he is in Milwaukee, and is being paid $12,000 for ten days’ work. In between trips, he works at the local trauma centers, and was one of the nurses on duty this past weekend in the Orlando area.

Now that you have the background, here is how he wound up on the terror watch list:

A known terrorist was arrested, trying to enter the country with my son’s passport. Well, not his actual passport, but a forgery with all of his information on it.

In all of his travels, he once had to go to the Dominican Republic to bring a patient home. While he was there, a government official photocopied the passports of the entire crew: 3 members of the flight crew, a respiratory therapist, and my son. Those photocopies were sold to people who make forged identity papers, and that information was used to create fake papers.

My son received a visit from DHS, they revoked his passport, and he had to apply for a new one. His name, birth date, and other information is now on the suspected terrorism watch list, because that information is now known to be used by terrorists.

This proposed law would prevent my son from buying a firearm, even though he has not broken a single law, nor is he likely to.

And remember, the Dems don’t want there to be any way for you to get off the list. They rejected the Coburn/NRA bill because it would provide for that. That’s because the goal is not to protect us from terrorists. The goal is to make as many people prohibited as possible so gun ownership becomes more burdensome and legally risky than it already is.