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Sunday, December 6, 2015

Obama, Terrorists, and Gun Control

The president, in both Sunday night’s speech and his weekly address, sullied the memories of the victims by beating on the gun control drum. At least he finally one of these attacks by Muslims terrorism, though he watered it down by referring to ‘radicalism.’ In seven years, this was probably the first time President Obama explicitly admitted Islam has a terrorism problem. Gun control, as Obama has admitted, is a priority in his final year of office. In light of this latest Islamic terror attack, Obama is trying to change the subject away from the real issue and push his leftist agenda.

‘Terrorist Loophole’?

There seems to be hidden blueprint for further infringing upon the Second Amendment. After the 2012 Sandy Hook shootings, the call was, among other things, to ban the so-called “gun show and internet loopholes” by banning private sales. After the federal ban failed in Congress, anti-gunners took their show on the road and states, like Nevada, have are facing an onslaught of ‘universal background check’ initiatives and laws.

Each of these infringement offensives have a unique goal to tighten the noose around Second Amendment without addressing the underlying causes of tragedy supporters are tying their efforts to. With universal background checks, all recent high-profile shooters passed a background check or otherwise got their guns in a way that a background check would not have been required (the Sandy Hook murderer killed his mother to get her guns, for example).

Between the Paris attacks and the San Bernardino attacks, leftists began bandying about the term ‘terrorist loophole’ because people on the ‘no-fly list’ of suspected terrorists can legally buy a gun. The ‘boyfriend loophole’, which has less panache, was floating around before that. Interestingly, felonious boyfriends and husbands often get their girlfriends/wives to buy a gun for them in a straw purchase. Leftists see freedom as a series of loopholes. Being consumed by loophole mania, they probably complain about Swiss cheese not being a solid block. One day, they’ll be complaining about the “Melvin M. Johnson loophole” because he’s the last person who can legally buy a gun.

One would suspect that if someone was on a terrorist watch list, then the FBI would have them under surveillance and know if they bought a gun. Or the components for a pipe or pressure cooker bomb. The lunacy of this working is lost on the leftists. Buying ephedrine when a cold has reduced you to mouth-breathing is about as intensive as buying a gun, but meth still gets made.

The cornerstone of American jurisprudence is due process of law.  Without it, we are subject to the whims and Byzantine workings of bureaucracy. All other categories of prohibited persons have been adjudicated in some fashion; the checks and balances of a day in court ensuring that someone isn’t being capriciously deprived of their rights.
The no-fly list, a subset of the Terrorist Screening Center’s list of surveillance targets, lists nearly 50,000 people, though the actual numbers are secret. Wikipedia has a small list of notable cases of persons, not actually terrorists, who have been stopped from flying, including some who were apparently added to the list in retaliation for something the government didn’t like.

The ACLU calls the process “[…] to challenge their blacklisting is grossly insufficient and violates the U.S. Constitution’s due process guarantee.” It goes on to describe the challenge process, which is an entirely bureaucratic process without court review. 
“If you are a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident, and the TSC determines that you are on the No Fly List, DHS TRIP will send you a letter informing you of your status on the No Fly List and providing the option to submit and receive additional information. If you choose that option, DHS TRIP will provide a second letter identifying the general criterion under which you have been placed on the No Fly List and possibly including an unclassified summary of the reasons for your inclusion on the List. You should know that the government’s summary likely will not include all of its reasons for your placement on the List, and in some cases the government will choose not to provide any summary at all. The government also will not provide you any of the evidence it relied upon in deciding to place you on the List, and it may also withhold information in its possession that undercuts its basis for putting you on the list. Finally, the government does not provide a live hearing at which you could testify, or give you an opportunity to cross-examine witnesses against you.” 
One still could file a lawsuit, but only after the fact. Most citizens learn of their status on the No Fly List by attempting to board a flight. Imagine going to gun store, only to be denied the ability to purchase a firearm. You would have first find out why you were denied, then begin the appeal process with the FBI, which you couldn’t do until the Dept. of Homeland Security removed you from its terrorist watch list. It’s a Kafkaesque nightmare meant to ensnare people. With the IRS targeting conservative groups illegally, one can imagine a rogue government agency or bureaucrat (or even under direction from President Obama or another leftist president) actually considering some gun owners (such as we of Nevada Carry) potential domestic terrorists.

Placing names on a list to restrict rights that is established by arbitrary criteria, secret information, and nearly impossible to challenge is un-American. If the ‘no-fly’ list didn’t have problems such as government security workers on it or listing children and people with similar names by accident, the argument might be valid. However, as we saw today, the San Bernardino terrorists committed their atrocity without going through a single so-called loophole. In fact, despite coming from countries that are rife with terrorism and radicalization factories and communicating online with suspected terrorist sympathizers, the California jihadist went unnoticed by law enforcement.

As with background checks, the ‘terrorist loophole’ non-sense is coming to the states. California Assemblyman Mike Gatto told the Sacramento Bee “It’s safe to say that if people who are under a mental-health hold cannot buy a weapon, then I think it makes sense that people who have been deemed so dangerous that they can’t board an airplane should be in that same category.” It’s just not that simple, unless Gatto approves of using an inaccurate database and trampling on the Fifth Amendment right to due process. Of course, since it involves guns, the Democrat doesn’t mind. Surely the legislature which banned open carry in 1967 because black people were doing it will easily pass this law.

Chris Cox, executive director, NRA Institute for Legislative Action gave the best reaction to President Obama’s rhetoric earlier this week. 
“The National Rifle Association is not to blame. Neither is our Second Amendment freedom. An act of evil unfolded in California. President Obama used it not as a moment to inform or calm the American people; rather, he exploited it to push his gun control agenda. Policy discussions should be intellectually honest and based on facts, not politics. And the fact remains that California has already adopted President Obama’s gun control wish list: "universal" background checks, registration, waiting periods, gun bans, magazine bans and an expansion of prohibited gun categories. But those laws did nothing to prevent this horrific crime from taking place. Nothing.” 
Obama and the leftists push the ‘terrorist loophole’ because it narrows who can buy guns. It sounds great and they think it can pass in the aftermath of this tragedy. What they are really doing is broadening the definition of who is prohibited from possessing firearms. The terror watch lists have no real criteria. If the Obama Administration decides that those who read this blog as potential terrorists, you could wind up on the list. It’s not far-fetched.

Quit with the Gun Control Already

Leftists and politicians do not understand that laws and disarming the law-abiding will result in safety. They are so deluded by their hate for guns, and some salivating over a disarmed populace, helpless to resist their agenda, they will use any tragedy, any excuse, fabricate any data, manipulate any statistics, and make any lie to promote their evil. Under President Obama’s administration, we’ve seen more true high-profile mass shootings than under any other recent president. Knowing that the media and the White House is behind them, those that would rob you of your rights have gun into full-battle mode. At no time in American history has the Second Amendment been under such.

Anti-gunners like the president are hecklers; they ask only rhetorical questions that ignore truth and facts. They rely on hyperbole, logical fallacies, and capitalizing on crises. They offer no solutions, only restrictions.

Leftists, who have asserted that their policies hold all the answers for life's problems, do not have the humility to admit that they are on the wrong side of the issue. Maybe in the '60s and '70s, we could have forgiven their ignorance, but waves of evidence show guns aren't the problem and leftists are so far gone the truth has lost all meaning to them. Lies and distortions have become such a part of their daily life that their capacity for rational thought has been destroyed.

Any attempt to confiscate or infringe any further upon the Second Amendment is likely to result in revolution. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the establishment Left is pushing America to the brink of armed resistance to the trampling of our rights, our faiths, our freedoms, and our way of life.

It is said that Social Security is the third-rail of a American politics. For those unfamiliar with the term, the third rail is a electrified rail that subways and trams (usually in the East), draw power from. Touching it will kill you. The Second Amendment is the hangman’s rope in American politics and politicians are busy pulling the noose over their heads.

Although it is stems from the most unfortunate of circumstances, the reaction of the American public rejecting gun control and supporting citizen’s carrying guns for self-defense is most heartening. This nation is waking up to the reality that criminals and terrorists cannot be stopped by laws and to save our own lives in the face of death, we must have a gun and be willing to use it.

 -G. C.

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