Terrorist watch list and Guns

[Magistrate PO]

I agree that this list should not be used to restrict people from gun purchases. Just to be on the safe side go the TSA no fly list and check to see if your name is on the list. I just checked and mine is not on the list at this time. Maybe later.

[samurrocket]

The terrorist watch list is a load of crap. At one point, there was discussion by the feds to add all service members,civilains, and civilain contractors in both Iraq and Afghanistan to the list. It amazes me that politicians are so far out of touch that it would even be a point of discussion. I have seen service memers and civialins give years of their lives, while some made the ultimate sacrrifice and that is the thanks give to them by the government they are sworn to defend. Truly amazing

[73z28454]

well you know, if there were such a bill, and those on the list were not allowed to buy firearms. i think the government would find a way to add every single one of us to it. talk about gun control.

[Daugherty16]

There are already established criteria for firearms purchases. The felony exclusion, and the - oh what is it - 7? big misdemeanors, adjudicated mental health problems, etc... Note that in each case, people are eligible to purchase a gun unless they have committed one of those crimes or have psychological issues. Plus i believe you have to be a US citizen or resident alien, and if we're talking handguns then lots of states have their own special hoops you have to jump through just to be approved to purchase a pistol. Lots of restrictions already in the laws.

I agree that the prior posts have it right. If you're currently ineligible for firearm ownership, you've done something and been caught, to get there. Tried by a jury of your peers (or copped a plea because you were guilty as hell) but regardless, you have had your day in court and were found guilty. The terrorist list wouldn't matter a bit to you then.

So this terrorist list, by contrast, is some mysterious list maintained by the attorney general, right? Nobody knows how names are added to the liist - what is the criteria, what are the limits, where is the review process that keeps law-abiding citizens off the list? No, using this list as a criteria for banning firearms purchases demonstrates a total lack of due process - guilty because some nameless faceless party added your name to the list? Even if your name is Khalid Al-Fatwaa, you're from Saudi Arabia via Damascus and your fingertips are permanently stained from C-4, the list should not be the criteria for firearms purchases.

[HK4U]

I think we should pay to send all our polititions on a vacation out of the country and then put them on a no fly list so they can not get back in.

[commissaire02]

Inclusion on a "watch list" of any kind is, in my opinion, insufficient grounds to deny anyone ANY rights, including, without limitation, the right to purchase, possess, carry, or use firearms.

One is innocent until proven guilty and therefore must be allowed to buy firearms unless and until a disqualifying crime is committed, and the person is convicted thereof.

I have serious problems with these lists, as there is no way to remove yourself from them in cases of say, mistaken identity. For example, I have had my last name mis-spelled on STATE ISSUED LICENSES three separate times (mine is a commonly mis-spelled last name)

[DougG]

I fly a lot and fear that just because I am on post like this one and others that I could be labeled as a right wing extremist with out a trial just as payback for not supporting what is going on in this County so there for I am against this. There would be no due process.

[Piece Corps]

Check this story out:

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- James Robinson is a retired Air National Guard brigadier general and a commercial pilot for a major airline who flies passenger planes around the country.

James Robinson is a retired brigadier general and a commercial pilot. His name is on the terrorist "watch list."

1 of 3 He has even been certified by the Transportation Security Administration to carry a weapon into the cockpit as part of the government's defense program should a terrorist try to commandeer a plane.

But there's one problem: James Robinson, the pilot, has difficulty even getting to his plane because his name is on the government's terrorist "watch list."

That means he can't use an airport kiosk to check in; he can't do it online; he can't do it curbside. Instead, like thousands of Americans whose names match a name or alias used by a suspected terrorist on the list, he must go to the ticket counter and have an agent verify that he is James Robinson, the pilot, and not James Robinson, the terrorist.

"Shocking's a good word; frustrating," Robinson -- the pilot -- said. "I'm carrying a weapon, flying a multimillion-dollar jet with passengers, but I'm still screened as, you know, on the terrorist watch list."

The American Civil Liberties Union estimates more than 1 million names have been added to the watch list since the September 11 attacks.

The FBI, which manages the Terrorist Screening Database, disputes that figure. It says that there are about 400,000 actual people on the list and that about 95 percent of those people are not U.S. citizens. Watch how three people found themselves on terror watch list »

"There's going to come a point in time where everybody's on the list," Robinson said.

Robinson is not the only person with that name flagged on the list.

Since airing a story this summer about how Correspondent Drew Griffin began getting told he was on the watch list -- coincidentally after he wrote a series critical of the TSA's Federal Air Marshal Service -- CNN has received dozens of e-mails and iReport submissions from viewers who also have found themselves on the watch list.

It turns out that three people named "James Robinson" found their names on the list in early 2005.

So? I vote "YES" on letting people on the terrorist watch list buy guns. Like they say, pretty soon, all of us will be on that list, and not because we are terrorists.

[Plop]

I voted YES. The memo that the DHS put out a little while ago had many citizens on the domestic terror watch list for their beliefs (pro-gun, pro-life, 3rd party supporter, right wing extremist, veterans!) Napolitano is a sad excuse for an American.

[SFC Stu]

Put me on another list! Watch but don't try to touch!