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This dragnet collection of social media information by the government has a chilling effect on [concealed carry permit] applicants’ exercise of their right to speak and associate with others online. The statute requires a list of all “social media accounts” — a broad term that includes platforms like Goodreads, MyFitnessPal, LinkedIn, and countless others that are unlikely to shed light on whether applicants are likely to harm themselves or others.

Disclosing those accounts will, however, expose a wealth of personal information to government scrutiny. Faced with the knowledge that the government is watching, many will censor what they say, not knowing how it might be interpreted. They may also stop engaging on social media with controversial individuals or groups — think Black Lives Matter, pro- or anti-abortion groups, or gun advocacy organizations. These harms are even greater for people who use pseudonyms on their social media accounts to protect their privacy or out of fear of retaliation, and who will be forced to give up their right to speak anonymously online in exchange for a license. …

Instead of weeding out those likely to commit violence, the registration requirement is more likely to inject bias into the process. Licensing officers’ political, religious, and social views may warp their perceptions, leading them to disproportionately disqualify applicants from marginalized communities. (A similar concern underpins recent efforts to limit the use of rap lyrics in criminal proceedings.) At the same time, language barriers, a lack of cultural context, and the risk of misinterpreting sarcasm and hyperbole all make the likelihood of misunderstandings high.

If allowed to stand, this law won’t be the last time we’re forced to hand over intimate and wide-ranging information in exchange for the ability to exercise our rights. The federal government is already collecting social media handles from visa applicants from other countries — nearly 15 million a year — under a requirement put in place by the Trump administration. (The Knight Institute, where I work, has challenged the visa requirement’s constitutionality in court.) One can easily envision a future in which such demands are routine, whether it is for a concealed-carry license or a driver’s license.

— Anna Diakun in New York’s Gun Law Goes Too Far: Requiring Concealed-Carry Applicants to Register Their Social Media Accounts Is Unconstitutional

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54 COMMENTS

  1. Closest thing to social media I do are a couple of discussion boards like this one.
    Never had a farcebook page or twit account.

  2. I don’t know what the big deal about NY’s law is. The fed is already doing this and has been for decades. Not to mention all the private sector firms that have been logging traffic and data since the first byte was sent.

    And still there’s a large contingent of people out there who insist this is all a big crazy conspiracy theory and not actually happening.

    I’m sure the ACLU and all the lefties who screech about COINTELPRO will be up in arms about this and fighting it tooth and nail. Right? They sort of pretended to back in the early days of the Patriot Act but got really quiet after Bush left office. Almost as if they never had any real convictions in the first place but that can’t be true, can it?

    • Bernie Sanders kept bragging about voting against the Patriot Act initially, and reauthorizing it in subsequent years. Then when he has the chance to make a difference, he, along with a few other senators, didn’t show up to vote last time. There was an amendment that would have required authorities to obtain a warrant to access internet users’ search histories and browsing information. It failed the 60-vote threshold by one vote! Where was Sanders? They only pretend to be against these things.

      Joe Manchin voted against the amendment. WV needs to ditch him already.

  3. Old man you’re lying, I know you got one somewhere, permit denied. I will be in the same boat as you, I don’t do social media either. Job interviewers want that bs now.

    • Red. Do tell. Could it be the one I keep getting notices about someone in Russia trying to access? Had 2 of those in the junk mail this morning.
      Just never wanted the crap that goes along with social media. Get enough from the handful of news/discussion pages I check in on. And never understood the need some folks have to inform the world what they had for lunch or when they are going on vacation.

  4. It is highly likely we will see gun ownership used as the frame work for social credit. If you look at what credit card processing is/was (probably more is) trying to do, they’re certainly trying.

    • Sounds like the author used the topic to draw a knee jerk conclusion from Gun Owners about the years past Trump Adminstration…Never mind POTUS DJT being banned from Twitter and constantly demonized for using social media, etc.

      Mentioning the Trump Administration in this article seems to be intended to open the self inficted wounds of Gun Owners who did not dare dive below the surface over Bump Stocks. Instead of diving deeper to weigh what could have happen if congress took charge knee jerk politically inept Gun Owners joined in on a witchhunt already underway by the democRat Party…The party that clearly wallows around 24/7 in Gun Control Big Brother hogwash.

      To whom it may concern…Please do not venture outside the point to ask about me about scuba diving or pig farming. Thank you.

      • And furthermore Diakun…Concern over effects on concealed carry applicants is neither here nor there. What is here and there are states taking a Constitutional Right from Citizens and Selling it back to them.

      • The requirement for visa applicants was directly aimed at non-citizens involved with ISIS / al-Qaeda / etc.

        We’ve obliterated any distinction between “non-citizen” and “citizen”.

    • George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning against just this type of Dystopian Society. Along with the education system, media and information control. The Democrat Party simply ran with it and has and is making it their playbook. You were warned.

      • As well as their masters in the CCP. China has a panopticon surveillance state even Orwell would consider excessive.

  5. The leftist anti-gun government entity dictionary:

    “social media
    noun

    plural in form but singular or plural in construction

    Forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, other content, all of which belong to us.”

  6. “This dragnet collection of social media information by the government has a chilling effect on [concealed carry permit] applicants’ exercise of their right to speak and associate with others online.”

    The effects of violating enumerated rights isn’t relevant. All that matters is whether the law violates the Constitution. The 4th simply states that people are to be secure, unless a specific warrant is issued; not a demand, a warrant.

    As to visa applicants, no one in a foreign nation has a natural, human and civil right to cross our borders, or enter our country. If foreigners are offended, they can sit on it.

  7. And so the ignorant Far Right thinks that the government does not know if you own weapons because your guns are not registered. Well guess again. They already know you have them because in the 21st Century there is nothing the government does not know about you, nothing.

    • And so the ignorant dacian seems to think we don’t realize us sane people don’t realize that’s a possibility and its got nothing to do with ‘registration’.

      dacian, seriously, the next time your mom gives you a break and takes the ball gag out of your mouth remember to take your anti-psychotic meds.

    • dacian the demented dips***,

      ‘Scuse me, is that the SAME government that you think should be in charge of our lives????

      F***ing hypocrite. You don’t object to authoritarian government, so long as you and your fellow travelers are in charge. Consume excrement and expire, you @$$clown.

        • Southern,

          As I’ve posted to them before, if my “opposition”, come the boogaloo, is dacian the demented and MinorLiar???? I like my chances. My observation of the Left is, when they send their best? They ain’t sendin’ much. Name a Leftist politician that you would call smart. I dare you.

          Now, admittedly, there are damn few conservative politicians I would call smart, but at least there are a couple.

        • Lamp, I just like trolling dacian.

          I wonder if he’s written a manifesto yet. If he has he’s keeping it private. Otherwise it could be considered premeditation.

          And despite their LARPing , I doubt many antifa could hit anything beyond drive by or execution distance.

    • dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. I guess you are from that school of thought than considers Constitutional Rights only for you and not for the rest of us? Whatever happened to the ‘right to privacy” which you Lefties seem to regard so highly? I guess in your “humble” (sic) opinion, if something is opposite of your view, it is fair game?
      Typical F A S C I S T mentality.

  8. Things like this is the problem with Truth Social. It’s also why I don’t use apps like MantisX or Hornady’s ballistics calculator. I would be happier if TTAG did’t embed so much tracking/advertising within it’s code. I never had a Facebook or Twitter account. I did create a MySpace account but that was used one time to send someone one message. TTAG is the only place a upload to so wether you like me or not, that’s where I am.

  9. With the new AI all they need is a nerd with a desk to talk to the computer while sipping his latte. A simple question like “Hal, make a list of every account that mentions any variation of a gun and a display of any manner of dis-satisfaction over the account holder’s lifetime and build a list of firearms owned by the account holder from the ATF and bank records. Hal, when you finish building the list then put a hold on their bank accounts and utility accounts and gov’t identification until all firearms are surrendered. If they resist surrendering their firearms then extend those holds to all family members until all of their firearms are surrendered as well.”

    The AI can run without any additional human interaction plus locate your exact position from cellphone, street cams and Nest type cams (including those on appliances, TVs, and computers in the home).

  10. If you have a state-issued carry permit and try to enter Canada, they will know you have that permit and give you a detailed looking over. As in, search you and your vehicle, and maybe have a dog sniff you and your vehicle. The data comes from a Homeland Security database Canada has a link to.

    Saw that on a Canadian ‘Customs and Border Patrol’ show…

    • I know many truck drivers who cross the border to snow Mexico lands all the time who have carry permits and none of that has happened.
      one friend just had his first inspection and he has been crossing for 5 years.

  11. Ponder this,,,,If you are involved in a shooting, your social media history will be searched and used against you. Don’t give any information without a warrant and a attorney by your side.

  12. The issue was argued yesterday in the Second Circuit because of an inclusion of such a requirement in NY’s new CCW scheme. In my view, Bruen requires the elimination of subjective evaluations of applicants by a government functionary, and requirements such as these delve into not just the existence of such accounts, but the contents as well, to determine whether an applicant has the “right” moral qualities to be granted a CCW–the very definition of a subjective, discretionary determination banned by Bruen.

  13. The government has already been data mining our information for 2 decades now. Cookies are one of the tracking mechanisms that has been used to track someone across the internet and link other information to a single individual. You might have heard of the data mining center buried under ground that was built for the NSA in the late 2000’s has not been busy just looking for terrorist. It has compiled information on everyone in the U.S. With the advent of AI, they can data mine with greater efficiency and better results.

  14. “Instead of weeding out those likely to commit violence,”

    Precrime? Just like RFOs, pure bullshit. This is for people who want to mess with people.

  15. The government is not all-knowing and doesn’t have the capability to intercept or analyze/process every email, phone call, etc. If the govt had this capability there would be no crime, there would be no foreign govt information out of reach.

    The government knows much less about you and what you have than you think. If they did, you wouldn’t have to fill out local/state/fed govt forms to apply for medical care, bank loans, and all the other shit you need to apply for all the time because that info would already be known. Believe it or not, you’re not important enough for the govt to give a shit about. Sorry.

    The idea the govt is all knowing and out to get you when they can’t stop terrorist attacks or other undesirable attacks is fucking retarded.

    • So. We just sit back and allow them to gain that capability without protest? We wait until after the fact?

  16. As far as the government knowing what I have, etc. I worked for them for 22 years. ( US Army). Worked as a first responder for several years and had both a small business as well as a class III FFL as a gunsmith/dealer for 15 years. Shut down the shop when I decided to move out of the snowdrift and settle down here. You can bet BATFE and likely a couple other agencies have kept tabs on me. Think about it. I am a trained, experienced gunsmith with a blacksmiths forge and decent machinists shop. Along with being a retired military NCO from the age when most military were anti communist.

  17. I dumped all my anti-social media years ago and am so much happier for it. Why do I want to open my life up for the world to see? I’m not in need of that kind of attention to feed an insatiable ego. How about you?

  18. Any one recall Lois Learner at the IRS and stalling conservative non-profits applications?
    She too thought she was doing good.

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