ningningning . . .
I read Thinkprogress for some godawful reason, and they’ve consistenly been batshit crazy on the subject of firearms. Their latest is to support rescinding 2nd Amendment rights for people on the terrorist watch list, that secret, inaccurate, arbitrary listing of Americans that don’t get to have the same rights as other folks.
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/06/06/237436/al-qaeda-gun-show-loophole/
Interestingly, Al Qaeda has as poor an understanding of U.S. gun law as Thinkprogress:
America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?
That’s from an Al Q spokesman. Thinkprogress seems to be fine with letting AlQ dictate who does and doesn’t get the constitution applied to them:
So it seems like it might be a pretty responsible and relevant idea to force individuals to go through a background check at gun shows and to prevent those on the terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms.
Of course either they are ignorant (nearly impossible considering how often they are corrected) or willfully ignoring the fact that you cannot purchase a fully automatic weapon without considerable background checks, no matter what the context or venue. I do support adding a basic background check to gun shows, but so far the government has provided no such mechanism of which I’m aware. But the idea of restrictions based on the watch list is sickening, how are we going to take away firearms from these people but allow them to drive SUVs past school playgrounds? Won’t somebody think of the children?
H.