Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Why the Firearms denial terrorist watchlist proposal is bad

The National Rifle Association is taking it on the chin for opposing proposed federal legislation intended to keep firearms away from people on the government's terrorist watchlist; at first blush a reasonable measure.

But - as always - there are two sides to every story. Here is the NRA's take:

Last week, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee rejected an amendment by Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), which proposed to allow the Attorney General to disapprove the NICS check of a person who has been placed on the FBI's secret "terrorist watchlist."

Similar legislation has been introduced by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.).

The NRA opposes all of these proposals for a variety of reasons, chiefly that they propose to deny a constitutionally protected, fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms without due process of law.

While some of the proposals pretend to allow a person to appeal his watchlisting in court, the proposals would prevent the watchlisted person or his lawyer from examining and challenging the government's "evidence," the accused would not be entitled to a trial by a jury of his peers, and the judge would not be allowed to examine the government's evidence in full.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com

1 comment:

  1. I liked this article very much. According to me, having a firearm training is must for every citizen of America. Owning a gun is becoming like a tradition here but without a proper training no one can make better use of that gun.

    Regards,
    Jacky

    ReplyDelete