Good for the ACLU!

They may be mostly a group of lefties, I am delighted that the ACLU has expressed concerns about the pending gun control bill.

…we have seen in the past that the creation of these types of records leads sometimes to the creation of government databases and collections of personal information on all of us,” Calabrese {ACLU privacy lobbyist] warned. “That’s not an inevitable result, but we have seen that happen in the past, certainly.”

“As we’ve seen with many large government databases, if you build it, they will come.”

[…]

“We think that that kind of record-keeping requirement could result in keeping long-term detailed records of purchases and creation of a new government database.”

“And they come to use databases for all sorts of different purposes,” Calabrese said. “For example, the National Counterterrorism Center recently gave itself the authority to collect all kinds of existing federal databases and performed terrorism related searches regarding those databases. They essentially exempted themselves from a lot of existing Privacy Act protections.”

“So you just worry that you’re going to see searches of the databases and an expansion for purposes that were not intended when the information was collected.”

Reid’s legislation is hauntingly vague about who would physically keep information about American gun purchases, but it’s crystal clear that records will be kept.

Of course it’s hauntingly vague. Deliberately so, as it is meant to be a new opportunity for Homeland Security and all the other police state goons to strip away the few remaining vestiges of our freedom.

Another concern expressed by the ACLU involves the absurd criminalization of “transfers”:

The ACLU’s second “significant concern” with Reid’s legislation is that it too broadly defines the term “transfer,” creating complicated criminal law that law-abiding Americans may unwittingly break.

“[I]t’s certainly a civil liberties concern,” Calabrese told TheDC. “You worry about, in essence, a criminal justice trap where a lawful gun owner who wants to obey the law inadvertently runs afoul of the criminal law.”

“They don’t intend to transfer a gun or they don’t think that’s what they’re doing, but under the law they can be defined as making a transfer. We think it’s important that anything that is tied to a criminal sanction be easy to understand and avoid allowing too much prosecutorial discretion.”

If what I have been reading is any indication, the ACLU is understating the case. To give an idea of the sort of thing that would be considered a “transfer,” consider scenarios like these:

  • If you left town for more than 7 days, and left your gay partner, or unrelated roommate at home with the guns, you’d be committing a felony. This should be called the “denying gun rights to gays act.” Remember that the federal government does not recognize gay marriage, even if you’re state does, thanks to DOMA. 5 years in prison.
  • Actually, even married couples are questionably legal, because the exemption between family only applies to gifts, not to temporary transfers. The 7 day implication is if you leave your spouse at home for more than 7 days, it’s an unlawful transfer, and you’re a 5 year felon. I suppose you could gift them to your spouse, or related co-habitant, and then have them gift them back when you arrive back home. Maybe the Attorney General will decide to create a form for that.

That’s fascist Orwellianism at its worst. It boils down to criminalizing gun owners who travel, and making unwitting felons out of millions.

Any Republican who supports this deserves to be treated the way the King’s tax collectors were treated at the time of the founding.

That the ACLU is sounding the alarm ought to be more widely reported.


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10 responses to “Good for the ACLU!”

  1. JB Avatar
    JB

    The folks running the system no longer have any moral authority to lead.

  2. […] They are wary of the record keeping requirements contained in their bill to expand the background ch…. Actually, the ACLU is a rather diverse organization. Some state chapters have long recognized the Second Amendment as an individual civil liberty, even if the national ACLU long held to the now discredited state/collective right view. […]

  3. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    That’s refreshing. Whenever ACLU had a booth at Boston events I used to tweak them by asking if they’d ever defended a 2nd amendment case. Get stared at as if I was from Mars.

    (Also brought a Cuban cigar to hemp events so I could ask how the hemp folks liked my illegal smoke)

  4. […] Classical Values » Good for the ACLU! That’s fascist Orwellianism at its worst. It boils down to criminalizing gun owners who travel, and making unwitting felons out of millions. […]

  5. Simon Avatar

    I sent a link to this to Richard Feldman:

    http://classicalvalues.com/2013/04/it-worked-once/

    Within 15 minutes I got back an e-mail with the Daily Caller link.

  6. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    “That the ACLU is sounding the alarm ought to be more widely reported.”

    The right actually should interact with, and even sometimes support, the ACLU.

    The ACLU is known for taking unpopular positions, just because they are the correct thing to do. (See Nazi parades.) And this latest evidence.

    Note to the right: if the ACLU is not backing you, perhaps it’s because you are trying to take someone’s rights away?

    If you aren’t – perhaps they will listen. Perhaps you should ask.

    (Pardons to Eric and Simon.) But if you are going to tell raped women that they MUST bear their rapist’s child, forget it. They won’t be on your side. Nor will I. And I’m an adoptee.

  7. Simon Avatar

    Kathy I’m pretty sure about Eric and I’m absolutely sure about me. We agree with you.

  8. Man Mountain Molehill Avatar
    Man Mountain Molehill

    Does the ACLU really take unpopular positions because “they are the correct thing to do”? Or is it mainly a Gramschian attempt at disrupting established societal norms? Or possibly both depending…

    I still don’t trust the Associated Communists and Liberals Union.

  9. Kathy Kinsley Avatar
    Kathy Kinsley

    Yes, actually, I think they do ” take unpopular positions because “they are the correct thing to do””. I DO agree they lean left, and that the “correct thing to do” also does. BUT if they see something stomping on rights they don’t necessarily agree with, they will go for it.

    They don’t always succeed, but I do think they try.

  10. PromptCritical Avatar
    PromptCritical

    So they are against all the things necessary to take away a right without supporting the right itself.

    Oh well. It’s a start…