After the Orlando massacre, isn’t it time to get guns out of the hands of . . . licensed security guards?
Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, who murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in The Pulse nightclub, worked for the globe’s largest security firm, Britain’s G4S. He passed two background checks conducted by the company.
Mateen’s government credentials included “a Florida state-issued security guard license and a security guard firearms license.” Twice, he was investigated by the FBI, in 2013 and again in 2014, and cleared — investigations closed.
Should we talk about security failures?
Instead, a filibuster by Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy and a sit-in protest by House Democrats changed the channel to gun control. The Senate voted on four bills that threatened more than the Second Amendment. Our Fifth Amendment rights to due process were also in the sights of crusading Democrats and appeasing Republicans and still are.
Not to mention the Ninth Amendment, freedom to do all manner of things, including travel.
Hillary Clinton says that “if you’re too dangerous to get on a plane, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun.” Yet, the problem comes in government simply declaring someone too dangerous to fly or to buy a gun, without ever publicly bringing a charge — you know, with evidence — much less convicting that person of a crime.
Having a government agent place a name on a secret list doesn’t even approximate due process of law. And, accordingly, doesn’t justify stripping a person of fundamental liberties.
Terrorism is terrifying . . . but not any more so than politicians who, in pursuit of their political agendas, don’t think twice about our freedoms or their constitutional limitations.
It’s not all right.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
4 replies on “What Doesn’t Fly”
Was it not Churchill who stated that a person who gives up freedom for security will have neither?
Liberty as always been costly, paid for with blood and treasure. God, the natural law and the US Constitution all protect the right to self-defense, travel and free speech.
f the politicians do not understand that then it is they who are disqualified. In their oath of office they swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and they should be IMMEDIATELY and those that propose such violations of it as you note should be immediately removed from office and disqualified from any further government “service”. There is a right to keep and bear arms, to travel and free speach, there is o right to hold office.
TSA is totally unconstitutional. Same activities by private companies that do not have a monopoly, where citizens could subject themselves to the same intrusion voluntarily would not be.
JFB — It was Ben Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” He said it in a Reply to the Governor of PA way back in 1755.
http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=6&page=238a
Judge Napolitano has weighed in stating that nobody died or was injured in Orlando before 5:13 a.m., when the SWAT team arrived. http://brianrwright.com/CoffeeCoasterBlog/?p=7717. Looks to me we need to discuss disarming government officials, not citizens.