Innocent until you’re on the list
The FBI is getting in on the selling guns to people who don’t have felony convictions and are not illegal immigrants but are on a federal watch-list issue:
FBI Director Robert Mueller is forming a study group to review the law that let suspected terrorists buy guns in the United States after they cleared background checks.
Mueller unveiled his plan to form the Justice Department working group, which will include the FBI, in a letter sent Wednesday to Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. The group will also review the government report issued earlier this month that said more than 40 terror suspects were able to buy firearms in the United States last year because background checks showed they had no felony convictions and weren’t illegal immigrants.
I would hope they would be. Putting them on a list doesn’t make them guilty and should not revoke their rights.
March 28th, 2005 at 11:33 am
Guilty until proven innocent, I imagine. Let’s just hope Ted Kennedy is still on some secret “unlist”.
March 28th, 2005 at 3:42 pm
Funny thing is, I am sure the ACLU is quick to defend terror suspects on watch lists when it comes to things like travel and speech, but at the same time utterly fails to support any of their gun rights.
I am torn on this issue. I hate the idea of taking away gun rights from someone who is innocent until proven guilty. But then I also think that if there is REAL reason to suspect someone of terrorism, take every precaution. If someone could have looked back on 9/10/01 and said Mohammed Atta is going to fly a plane into the Tower, I’d have shot the bastard myself, the hell with his “rights” until proven guilty in court.
But how do we “know” when someone really is a terrorist and not just someone who unfortunately fits a profile?
This is a deeply troubling issue for me, and I admit I have no answer. I’ll have to think more on it.