A new bill has been introduced in the House which right wing blogger Darth Dubious says will take away all our Second Amendment rights. You can read the bill in question here. The bill would give the Attorney General the right to deny the transfer of firearms to people that he deems to be terrorists:
‘The Attorney General may deny the transfer of a firearm pursuant to section 922(t)(1)(B)(ii) if the Attorney General determines that the transferee is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support thereof, and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief that the prospective transferee may use a firearm in connection with terrorism.’;
HR 2159 continues:
‘The Attorney General may determine that an applicant for a firearm permit which would qualify for an exemption under section 922(t) is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support thereof, and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief that the applicant may use a firearm in connection with terrorism.’;
The AG also has the authority to withhold pertinent information from the person involved:
(1) in the 1st sentence of paragraph (1), by inserting ‘, except that if the denial or revocation is pursuant to subsection (d)(1)(H) or (e)(3), then any information on which the Attorney General relied for this determination may be withheld from the petitioner if the Attorney General determines that disclosure of the information would likely compromise national security’ before the period; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink
(2) in paragraph (3), by inserting after the 3rd sentence the following: ‘With respect to any information withheld from the aggrieved party under paragraph (1), the United States may submit, and the court may rely on, summaries or redacted versions of documents containing information the disclosure of which the Attorney General has determined would likely compromise national security.’.
The bill provides for an appeal process:
‘(b) In any case in which the Attorney General has denied the transfer of a firearm to a prospective transferee pursuant to section 922A or has made a determination regarding a firearm permit applicant pursuant to section 922B, an action challenging the determination may be brought against the United States. The petition must be filed not later than 60 days after the petitioner has received actual notice of the Attorney General’s determination made pursuant to section 922A or 922B. The court shall sustain the Attorney General’s determination on a showing by the United States by a preponderance of evidence that the Attorney General’s determination satisfied the requirements of section 922A or 922B. To make this showing, the United States may submit, and the court may rely on, summaries or redacted versions of documents containing information the disclosure of which the Attorney General has determined would likely compromise national security. On request of the petitioner or the court’s own motion, the court may review the full, undisclosed documents ex parte and in camera. The court shall determine whether the summaries or redacted versions, as the case may be, are fair and accurate representations of the underlying documents. The court shall not consider the full, undisclosed documents in deciding whether the Attorney General’s determination satisfies the requirements of section 922A or 922B.’.
The Attorney General would have similar authority to deny explosives licenses to people he deems to be suspected terrorists and withhold information used to deny that information as well.
The blogger Darth Dubious states that the implications of this bill are "sinister:"
On April 29, with little fanfare or corporate media coverage, H.R. 2159 was introduced and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. The bill would "increase public safety by permitting the Attorney General to deny the transfer of a firearm or the issuance of firearms or explosives licenses to a known or suspected dangerous terrorist." The entire bill can be read on the Govtrack website.
A similar bill was introduced in the Senate in 2007 but did not make it out of committee.
As noted above, the DHS has compiled a long list of folks the government considers terrorists. The bill, if enacted, would allow the attorney general, a documented gun-grabber, to deny millions of Americans due process. "[Rep. King] would deny citizens their civil liberties based on no due process," Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, tells WorldNetDaily.
Pratt worries that the new bill will be used in conjunction with the DHS "Rightwing Extremism" report. "By those standards, I’m one of [DHS Secretary] Janet Napolitano’s terrorists," Pratt continues. "This bill would enable the attorney general to put all of the people who voted against Obama on no-gun lists, because according to the DHS, they’re all potential terrorists. Actually, we could rename this bill the Janet Napolitano Frenzied Fantasy Implementation Act of 2009."
He notes that Holder has long campaigned to keep guns out of the hands of people whom he sees as terrorists:
Shortly after 9/11, Holder penned a Washington Post op-ed entitled "Keeping Guns Away From Terrorists." In the article, the future Attorney General argues that a new law should give "the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a record of every firearm sale." He also states that prospective gun buyers should be checked against the secret "watch lists" compiled by various government entities. In order to make his point, Holder makes the ludicrous hypothesis that Osama bin Laden would be able to purchase an unregistered firearm at a gun show in America.
The government now possesses the appropriate "watch lists" and has designated specific categories of Americans as domestic terrorists. If H.R. 2159 becomes law the Obama administration and the Justice Department will go after opponents to their far-reaching plan to disarm the nation and deliver it defenseless into the clutches of bankers and corporatists determined to reduce a once proud constitutional republic to the status of a feudalist backwater.
Congressman Peter King has supported this bill. The following Congressmen have signed on as sponsors:
# Rep. Peter King [R, NY-3]
* Rep. Michael Castle [R, DE-0]
* Rep. Mark Kirk [R, IL-10]
* Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4]
* Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8]
* Rep. Charles Rangel [D, NY-15]
* Rep. Christopher Smith [R, NJ-4]
Is this a sensible way of keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists? Are the due process rights of people denied guns protected? Or is this yet another federal attack on our civil rights in the name of "fighting terrorism?"