Be Very Afraid

The headline screams that this is something you should really, really, really be afraid of. And, sure enough, when you read the article you had better understand how scary it is.

Potential Terrorists Allowed to Buy Guns

Wow! Last year 247 people on the terrorist watch list bought guns in the US and watchful Sen. Lautenberg, renowned hoplophobe, wants to do something about it!

That's not what scare me, nor is it something to frighten you. This is the part that should terrify you:

The list of about 450,000 people includes suspected members of al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, terror financiers, terror recruiters and people who attended training camps. People's names are added to and removed from the watch list every day, and most people never know whether they're on it.
 Lautenberg and two dozen other members of Congress want the attorney general to have the authority to prevent someone on the terror watch list from buying a gun if the attorney general believes that person will use it in a terrorist act.

People come and go from the list. There is no due process to being added or removed from the list. There is no indictment or hearing. There is no appeal. And Lautenberg wants to give the Attorney General and his army of bureaucrats total authority to build a list of people who should be denied a gun. How about listing "all the residents of ...insert city or town of your choice..."? How about all persons over the age of fifty? How about all registered Republicans? How about all persons previously on record as currently owning a firearm?

Yes, you should be afraid, but not because 247 people on that list of half a million bought a firearm last year.

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