Homeless in Arizona

Conn. to ban gun sales to 'no fly' listers

This is a different article, but has the same comments as the last article I posted.

So if an unnamed person, or unnamed government bureaucrat accuses you of being a terrorist and gets you placed on a "no fly list", Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy wants to be able to revoke your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms????

No trial, no hearing, nothing, your just placed on the list. And of course you can't appeal the decision, or even find out the name of the unnamed person, or unnamed government bureaucrat that accused you of being a terrorists.

Sorry folks, American is now a police that that is just as evil as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union or Red China.

I suspect that if the Founders were alive they would get getting out the guns and violently overthrowing the government.

Conn. to ban gun sales to 'no fly' listers

Conn. to ban gun sales to 'no fly' listers

John Bacon, USA TODAY 6:20 p.m. EST December 10, 2015

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Thursday he will sign an executive order banning people on federal terrorism watch lists from buying guns in the state.

"Like all Americans, I have been horrified by the recent terrorist attacks in San Bernardino and Paris," said Malloy, a Democrat. "They have been and should be a wake-up call to our nation. I am taking this common-sense step with this executive order simply because it's the right thing to do. It's the smart thing to do."

Malloy said that if a person isn't trusted to fly because of a watch list, that person shouldn't be able to buy a gun.

"Why anyone would stand idly by and knowingly allow those on government watch lists to purchase guns is truly unbelievable. Since Congress so far has failed to act, we will," Malloy said.

In the days after the terrorist attack in San Bernardino that killed 14, President Obama cited a "wake-up call" in proposing similar legislation at the federal level. The idea drew stiff opposition from gun rights supporters and Republicans in Congress.

"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?" Obama said. Though law enforcement cannot identify every possible terrorist, "what we can do and must do is make it harder for them to kill."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., dismissed the idea as a "halfhearted attempt to defend and distract from a failing policy."

Ryan said government officials put people on terrorism watch lists without any due legal process, so denying those listed the right to bear arms would violate their rights. He said that if someone is suspected of plotting an attack, law enforcement officials should arrest them.

Malloy cited data showing that from 2004 to 2014, people on watch lists tried to buy guns and explosives 2,233 times. "They succeeded more than 90% of the time," he said.

Malloy was governor when a shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., left 20 students and six school staffers dead. In 2013, he signed one of the nation's strictest gun laws. It requires universal background checks for gun buyers and limits magazine capacity to 10 rounds. The bill added scores of assault-style weapons to the state's list of weapons people are banned from possessing and created a registry for dangerous weapons offenders.

William Dunlap, law school professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, said the Supreme Court has said some limitations on who can buy guns are permissible. But Dunlap warned that federal watch lists are "notoriously inaccurate" and can include many innocent people.

"And they obviously leave off many dangerous people that we don’t know about, which means the lists are not as effective as they could be," Dunlap said. "These inconsistencies matter when courts apply heightened scrutiny to state laws.”

Allhands: Why the no-fly list is a bad idea

Allhands: Why the no-fly list is a bad idea

Joanna Allhands, The Republic | azcentral.com 12:58 p.m. MST December 10, 2015

This week U.S. President Barack Obama called for tougher gun controls in the wake of the California shootings, starting with a ban on gun purchases for anyone on a U.S. government no-fly list.

“What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?” President Obama asked Sunday in his plea to keep anyone on the no-fly list from buying a gun.

There are plenty of reasons, Mr. President.

Like my friend, whose sole transgression was that he had a name similar to someone on the no-fly list. It nearly took an act of Congress for him to get on a plane for more than a year, with no way to appeal.

He's not the only one who has had problems with the list. The ACLU is continuing to fight in court on behalf of 13 citizens who were placed on the list with no explanation. A congressman also recently claimed that dozens of Department of Homeland Security employees were on the list, though his claims have been questioned.

Either way, I think we all can agree that the list is far from perfect.

Some readers have called me selfish and dangerous for saying it's a bad idea to use such a document to restrict gun purchases. Maybe. I just think it's a bad idea to restrict the rights of innocent, law-abiding people -- especially if they have no way to question why they're on the list.

Others have suggested that with reforms and additional transparency, the no-fly list could be an effective tool to keep weapons out of the hands of would-be terrorists. They have more faith than I do in the ability of federal bureaucrats and Congress to do so.