Feeling safer yet?
Over the past eight years, we Americans have given or had taken away many liberties we used to take for granted. In the name of protecting ourselves from another terrorist attack, we have allowed grandmothers to be practically strip searched at airports, given up any expectation that our phone calls are private, and had to be ashamed that we tortured prisoners like a third world banana republic. We have made crossing the border into neighboring Canada seem as threatening as getting to the other side of the Berlin Wall.
Yet for all those security restrictions, the abrogation of many civil rights, one right remains sacrosanct: guns.
As the New York Times reported in todays edition;
"People on the government’s terrorist watch list tried to buy guns nearly 1,000 times in the last five years, and federal authorities cleared the purchases 9 times out of 10 because they had no legal way to stop them, according to a new government report."
Because of the power of the National Rifle Association, the government is unable to stop these people from buying a gun. Our lax regulations prohibit federal officials from prohibiting a gun purchase, unless the buyer is a felon, illegal immigrant, or a drug addict. So people on this watch list can't get on
a plane, but they may purchase guns and other weaponry. I guess it is safer to get on a plane. It's a good thing these prospective terrorists don't have another venue to utilize these weapons.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J), who requested the study, and had introduced legislation to fix this loophole in 2007 was quoted as saying that legislation failed because congress "knuckled under to the gun lobby".
Now I do understand there are problems with this watch list. Many innocent people have been flagged because they have the same name as a suspect. Still does it not make sense to use this list with care. We make some of these innocent people jump through hoops just to go on vacation. The least we could do is make sure legitimate terror suspects can't purchase weapons easily.
I realize that in this land of rednecks, I am not likely to get my way, and have guns go the way of the dodo bird. But this reflexive reaction of the NRA, to always oppose any restrictions on gun purchases has to be dealt with. We need a congress to stand up to these thugs, and say enough is enough. Common sense restrictions do not abolish the second amendment.
You already know how I feel about your gun laws. Whacked.
ReplyDeleteBut a little correction: The United States doesn't have any say over who gets into Canada and who doesn't. We are, after all, a sovereign state.
Your country is the one that wants to build a moat. Most Americans, including your head of Homeland Security, believe -- mistakenly -- that the 9/11 terrorists came into the US via Canada. They might be thinking of Ahmed Ressam, The Millenium Bomber, who attempted to enter the US via the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles. (I have a good story about that...Another time.) We got the blame for that one too...except it isn't our responsibility to check who is entering your country. That's what your border patrol is there for.
An aside, but a very important one to Canadians.
Thanks for catching that. I should have mad clear that the problem is not with crossing into Canada, rather in returning from.
ReplyDeleteWe used to go to Windsor fairly regularly. Since 9/11, of course, it has been far less often. Part of that is due to the no longer great exchange rates. The big factor, however, is the wait and hassle getting back into the U.S. every trip recently has required a 25 to 45 minute wait to get through the border crossing on the way home. That was before the new passport requirements took effect.
The point I was trying to make in the post,concerned our misguided ideas of what makes us safer. I have read articles over the last couple years, where we have tossed an Icelandic woman in jail for days, without representation, because she overstayed a visa by a few days. She had no suspested terrorist ties, and as a blonde, blue eyed, woman did not fit racial profiling either. At the same time, because of the power of the whacked out gun lobby, we allow suspected terrorists to purchase weapons.
Didn't mean to go off on a tangent. Well, yeah, I did. Your blog just gave me a forum to vent on an issue of my own.
ReplyDeleteBut your point is well-taken. All these (misguided) attempts to safeguard air travel, for instance, which affects only a small portion of Americans, while the general population is left vulnerable due to weak gun laws. It does, yet again, leave me shaking my head. Better to ensure, I guess, that a woman doesn't bring breast milk on board a plane than that a suspected terrorist (or anyone else) buys a gun. Theatre of the Absurd, yet again.