I read this press release and just couldn't believe it. The Second Amendment Foundation, a gun advocacy group, is calling for the resignation of Alberto Gonzales. It seems the AG is supporting a senate bill called the “Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2007." The press release says that the bill would give the Attorney General discretionary authority to deny the purchase of a firearm or the issuance of a firearm license or permit to American citizens suspected of having terrorist connections.
“This bill,” said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb, “raises serious concerns about how someone becomes a ‘suspected terrorist.’ Nobody has explained how one gets their name on such a list, and worse, nobody knows how to get one’s name off such a list.I haven't read the bill. I don't know the answers to Gottlieb's objections. If you read the quote, however, you will notice that he isn't just advocating 2nd Amendment rights. He is also making strong 4th Amendment arguments. It strikes me that some people on the right are beginning to catch on. This administration has launched an assault on the individual freedoms we used to take for granted.
“The process by which someone may appeal the Attorney General’s arbitrary denial seems weak at best,” Gottlieb suggested, “and there is a greater concern. When did we decide as a nation that it is a good idea to give a cabinet member the power to deny someone’s constitutional right simply on suspicion, without a trial or anything approaching due process?
“...S. 1237 is loaded with red flags. It would allow an appointed bureaucrat the authority to suspend or cancel someone’s Second Amendment right without even being charged with a crime.
“Attorney General Gonzales has no business asking for that kind of power over any tenet in the Bill of Rights,” Gottlieb said. “He took an oath to uphold the Constitution, not trample it. Perhaps it is time for him to go.” Emphasis added
