After the Pulse nightclub slaughter, failed Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio promised the parents of a Pulse victim that he would find out why the police department waited so long to confront the shooter, resulting in the needless deaths of so many people.
Wait. Sorry. That’s not it. He promised to “improve our laws so it is more difficult for evil people to get ahold of guns.”
As sun-sentinel.com reports . . .
The [Terror Intelligence Improvement Act] would require that the FBI Director and the Joint Terrorism Task Forces be “immediately” notified of any attempt to buy a gun by someone who has recently been the subject of a terrorism investigation.
The U.S. Attorney General would then be allowed to “delay” a purchase for up to 3 business days and file an emergency petition to prevent it. If the court finds probable cause that the buyer is connected to terrorism, that person can be arrested and detained.
“This bill would achieve everyone’s goal of making it harder for suspected terrorists to buy guns, and do so without violating the due process and Second Amendment rights of innocent, law-abiding Americans,” Rubio said.
Well that’s just dumb. If the gun buyer in question is not a prohibited person, then the FBI would have to charge them with something else to stop the sale. Something like, I dunno, planning a terrorist attack. Rubio’s not thinking that buying a gun while being on the Terrorist Watch List is criminal, is he?
Given that the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List is a secret, unaccountable (and therefore unconstitutional) database; given that the FBI’s recent “handling” of Hillary Clinton’s distribution of classified material (amongst other things) has revealed the Agency’s political contamination, this is a completely unacceptable “answer” to the Pulse attack, as his opponent points out, in his own special way.
“Rubio’s sham legislation is backwards,” Karp said. “The burden is on the Attorney General to prove in court that each individual flagged is intending to commit a crime.”
Karp said that someone who met that standard would likely have been already arrested or detained.
“Oh, and they only have three days to meet this standard of proof or else the weapon purchase goes forward,” he continued. “Rubio would give a suspected terrorist a weapon in 72 hours if the Justice Department couldn’t get a court to intervene.”
Yes. Yes he would. As would I and anyone who understands the sanctity of our individual, natural, civil, and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms. Not to mention the fact that a right delayed is a right denied.