Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.) has introduced a “compromise” that would bar Americans who are on the government’s infamous “n0 fly list” from buying a gun while introducing a mechanism to appeal denial of a gun purchase. How long would such an appeal take?
Such a proposal would be a gross violation of Americans’ constitutional rights. The burden of proof should be on the government to deny someone’s fundamental rights, not the other way around. What’s next, curtailing First, Fourth, or Fifth Amendment rights for people on the list?
A more practical matter is the sheer incompetence with which the government administers the list, along with other databases on which some guilty and some innocent Americans find themselves. That is, the government is just as incompetent in this arena as in every other. The list is secret, with no defined criteria for who puts an American on it or how to get taken off. Plenty of horror stories abound that show how difficult it is for anyone to navigate the bureaucracy to challenge inclusion on such a list. (Big-government advocates will retort that flying is not a constitutional or civil right. That is hardly a reassuring rejoinder in a free country.)
Perhaps this could be a viable measure for foreign nationals, particularly those who don’t have a green card. Collins notes that “most” of the people on the list are foreigners, but that is also not very reassuring in light of the opacity with which the government maintains the list.
Please, Republicans, don’t fall into the MSM/liberal trap of feeling pressured to “do something,” namely, to add yet another ineptly-run government program to try to remedy a litany of existing ineptly-run government programs.
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