Loaf of Ungrateful Bread: Progressives Are Lying About Gun Control, As Usual

Gabe was the first I know of to note that the left was dishonestly conflating the "No fly" list with the Terrorism Watch list in their gun-ban agitations, and some in the media are starting to notice.

Basically, the scam works like this: the left is actually proposing a ban of gun sales to anyone on the terror watch list, a huge sprawling thing of up to one million names.

However, in their public statements about the ban, they claim they're banning only those on the no-fly list-- a much smaller list of around 44,000 to 47,000 names. (Many of which are on the list erroneously! Steven Hayes was on the list, so was right-leaning legal analyst J. Christian Adams.)

But the left's claims they're just stopping those already barred from flying from buying a gun are false: Only those 44,000 to 47,000 are so barred (and they're not even completely barred).

The Democrats are proposing to impose a no-guns rule on a million people who are, in fact, permitted to fly.

[T]his will shock the president and Clinton, but people forbidden from buying a gun under this legislation will still be allowed to travel by air. This is because people on the terrorist watch list are not forbidden from flying. They get extra scrutiny at airports, but can come and go as they please, making the president’s pitch even more nonsensical. The terrorist watch list was never designed as a vehicle for adjudicating an individual’s rights or benefits in relation to the government.

The terrorist watch list was never designed as a vehicle for adjudicating an individual’s rights or benefits in relation to the government.

Fourth, the terrorist watch list already gets pinged when an individual applies for a background check for a firearm purchase. Matches are passed to the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, which may then investigate and block the purchase if it is illegal. Individuals on the terrorist watch list routinely pass this extra screening because the government usually lacks evidence to forbid the purchase. After all, that's why these individuals are on a watch list, and not in a jail cell.

Andy Levy picked up on this on Red Eye a day or two ago, interrogating an editor from the Daily Beast as to why his amateur webzine routinely permits Democrats to get away with this swindle, even having been alerted to the swindle.

While the no-longer-a-real-magazine The Atlantic continues conflating the no-fly list with the much broader terror watch list, I just saw a writer at Roll Call actually make the distinction.

So, progress for the Loaf.

Corrected: I said a writer at The Hill had made the distinction, but couldn't find that article.

That's because it wasn't at The Hill.

It was at Roll Call.

posted by Ace at 04:10 PM

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