Posted on 05/28/2011 5:28:08 AM PDT by marktwain
The NRA sold out the Second Amendment during the Patriot Act fight, criticizing Senator Rand Paul's amendment to exempt gun purchases from search provisions of the Patriot Act in e-mails to Congress while sitting on information showing the need for Paul's amendment. The information shows that the FBI and the federal government's Joint Terrorism Task Force have already begun trolling the records of law-abiding gun owners, using the excuse of terrorism surveillance.
The NRA published information May 27 — the day after the vote — indicating that Rand Paul (R-Ky.) was right in warning that Patriot Act provisions threatened law-abiding gun owners. In fact, the NRA proved that Patriot Act surveillance of law-abiding gun owners as terrorists was already occurring.
The NRA sent at least two e-mails to Congress during the Patriot Act debate this week calling Rand Paul's amendment to exempt gun purchases from the provisions of the Patriot Act a "poorly drafted amendment" and stating that "the NRA could not support this." The Senate rejected the Paul amendment by an 85-10 vote May 26. And the NRA e-mail, according to Reason magazine, claimed:
There have been no reports of the current PATRIOT Act being abused with respect to firearms records, however supporters suggested a far-fetched scenario in which every firearms sales record in the country — tens or hundreds of millions of documents dating back to 1968 — could be sought. Again, we nor anyone else is aware of any case in which this authority has been used to abuse gun owners. (In fact, published reports indicate that few of these orders are ever sought for any reason.)
Senate leadership may have relied upon the NRA's advice, according to Redstate.com, citing a letter from Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl that echoed the NRA letter: "it is extremely unlikely that this authority will ever be used to harass lawful gun owners."
But on May 27, the very day after the Paul Amendment vote, the NRA's own Institute for Legislative Analysis released a press release that proved Senator Paul's warnings prescient. The NRA/ILA claimed:
Since the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is responsible for enforcing federal gun laws, dealers and other federal firearm licensees typically contact that agency (or state or local police) when they encounter suspicious customers. So, it raised eyebrows when the FBI began circulating flyers in gun shops and ranges, encouraging owners of those businesses to report suspicious customers to “your local Joint Terrorism Task Force” instead. The flyers first appeared in Connecticut, with a revised version appearing more recently in Utah.
But the flyers, which the NRA had received from gun shops and gun ranges in the Salt Lake City, Utah and New Haven, Connecticut, areas, contained demands that gun clubs and gun shops submit law-abiding gun owners information to the federal government. The flyers demanded that gun information be proffered up to the FBI's Terrorism Joint Task Force if a gun buyer had an "altered appearance from visit to visit (beard shaved off, hair color changed, etc.)" or "insists upon paying with cash" or had made "racist" or "extreme religious statements" or issued "vague or cryptic warnings."
In short, if an American buys a gun and gets a haircut, dyes his gray hair, or shaves his beard, his gun records will be sent to the FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force for a terrorism investigation. Other "suspicious" activities also raise questions: If a person says homosexuality is a sin, is that an extreme religious statement that would lead to the FBI investigating him as a terrorist? If a person is against affirmative action, is that a racist sentiment that fingers him as a terrorist?
The FBI flyer was clear that the fact that the gun buyer was an innocent, law-abiding citizen was no excuse for a gun shop not to send the gun records to the FBI: "Some of the activities, taken individually, could be innocent and must be examined by law enforcement professionals," the flyer demanded.
Investigating law-abiding gun owners as terrorists may be just what President Obama reportedly told Jim and Sarah Brady back on March 30. "I just want you to know that we are working on it," Brady recalled Obama telling the anti-Second Amendment activist organization. "We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."
While the NRA did not say when it obtained information about the FBI/Joint Terrorism Task Force flyers sent to gun shops, the phrasing on the press release does suggest they possessed them before the Patriot Act vote: "The flyers first appeared in Connecticut, with a revised version appearing more recently in Utah."
By way of contrast, Gun Owners of America enthusiastically supported the Paul Amendment: "Without Paul’s exemption, it is possible that the BATFE could go to a secret (FISA) court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 in the country, ostensibly because a 'terrorism investigation' requires it. If such an action were taken, the government would have a list of every gun buyer in the country going back decades."
Related articles:
Four-year Patriot Act Extension Passes Despite Rand Paul's Efforts
Anti-Fourth Amendment Patriot Act
The NRA is becoming an arm of the liberal government.
This was/is my concern regarding the PA.
As I have said before and someone objected to my comment. Join the GOA Gun Owners Of America.
Sounds like the NRA is being infested with liberals from within with the intention to self-destruct. I’ve noticed some other signs over the past couple years, too.
See, on one side you have the NRA “apologists”, and on the other you have the NRA “bad-mouthers”...
I can dig it, the lines are well defined, no problem at all with either faction...
Does anyone really believe, with the way the government is increasingly intruding into our lives, whether we detect it or not, that the NRA and other true conservative elected members of our government were going to stop this???
If the government was snooping around anyway, before all of this went down, that really means there was a concerted effort, approved, sanctioned, signed off on, to do all this un-warranted snooping,so they just figured out that they should just go ahead, while they can and make it public...
I would think it logical to do so, from their point of view...Reason being is that it already intimidates people (law-abiding citizens) from considering legally purchasing a firearm for fear of this type of snooping into their personal lives for some political reasoning...
So what is the answer here folks???
You know the answer, but do you know why???
The situation at the end of the day is that when a segment, or for that matter all of us who are avid gun owners, are targeted for investigations, whther they are warranted or not, it just makes it easier for them to step up the snooping whenever it suits the political flavor of the moment...
What they count on is the compliance and weakness, maybe futility of resistance to the extremes of raids on private citizens who own gun(s), and the confiscation of said materials on the whim of those political flavors...
Many people have seen me write this time and time again, and I will continue to do so, and to hell with anyone who doesn’t agree, or like what I say...
“What are you prepared to do about it??? And what are you prepared to sacrifice for it???”
It is the ultimate “gut check” and one that is rhetorical in nature...
I already know what I and a few others are willing to do, and at the end of the very same day the usurpers of our natural unalienable rights get big surprises...It is that simple, direct and final...
And the NRA, in my opinion at that point is not going to be much of a factor at that particular juncture...
I agree, the NRA has lost some of its fire for the clear advocacy of our right to keep and bear arms because maybe there is a sense that most is well with the gun owning community...
We sure do see these things and we comment and get our opinions known...We sometimes do a better job than the NRA sometimes...That is a fact!!!
The NRA is not going to be the organization that steps up when the government gets out of hand...
It will always be us...
So relax, sure, it is frustrating, and it makes some people mad as hell when these things happen...
We do not need to fear them, we need them to continue to fear us and our wrath, when they feel it is time for them to “try” and remove this unalienable right...
I believe we will be surprised at the quick result that will favor us, when and if they make that poor decision...
You know what makes me feel better though???
When something like this pops up, I go buy a box, or case of ammo...It kinda calms me down...;-)
The cooler we are about these things, the more coals it heaps on their fire...Because they’ll have this illusion that they won something over on us...But that can’t possibly be true...Unless you let it...
Just my opinion...
NRA after 9-11 membership jump through the roof
Well with all that money it no longer cared about gun rights
Know which guns the government knows about, background check purchase, and which ones they do not know about, private sale.
The lesson here is just buy your weapons through private parties. Until we get our country back its the only way to assure that you won’t be targeted.
It would mean more if it was somewhere other than New American. It’s not exactly a trustworthy source.
But even so, it’s got nothing to do with the Patriot Act. It seems to be about a program at the FBI to ask gun shops to be alert for certain suspicious people and to report people that fit a profile. So Achmed and Mohammed visit a gun store and want to buy several AKS rifles for cash and give conflicting information about where they live and seem nervous... should the gun shop NOT report that?
No more. I am not going to fight for jack assess that will not miss Sports Center or American Idol to go to a city council meeting and fight to keep their rights. That said I am not going to be gunned down in my home in front of my family by the local death squad from the LEO gang either. Starting something yourself will only get you dead and labeled as another right wing gun nut that adds to the fuel for gun control. You can't fight city hall. The fix is in from the top and they will keep squeezing. Someday maybe enough people will show up to make a difference. Until then I just do my own quiet thing. The NRA is a joke and is actually part of the problem.
They used the terrorist angle as justification. Often they tell gun shop owners that the PA authorizes this kind of snooping. It is directly tied to the PA and it’s overreaching presence.
So when a gun shop owner has some suspicious muslims asking creepy questions and buying guns and ammo for cash... he should just go along with it? Or should he report it to somebody?
I was in a big box sporting goods store yesterday and spotted an ATF agent that I had had a run in with at a gun show last year. He was hanging around the gun counter pretending to admire guns all the while watching (and recording) who was buying guns. I walked over to the counter and loudly announced his presence as an ATF agent. Several customers immediately left. I called it a good day.
The little midget boy shooter2.5 received the kitty treatment about 6 months ago. He and his muslim loving group, the nra, (see Grover Norquist, agenda setter, lobbyist, policy masker and overall heavy hitter for C.A.I.R., the muslim terrorist front group here in America. The nra allowed old Grover’s name on their board ballet and then allowed his installation when he was voted in. The nra knew FULL WELL ALL ALONG of his muslim/anti-American dealings also!! They did not care.), can have each other.
The NRA is a traitorous organization, they do not really support gun right just the illusion. Indeed true to form as a traitor among our ranks they seem to urge only what amounts to Pyrrhic victories. Sacrificing vast territory to goverment infiltration and regulation with the potential to squelchy gun rights for just small comparatively meaningless gains.
The NRA is not on our side, they are an agent of the enemy.
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