“If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun.” – Barack Obama
This is perhaps the most infuriatingly disingenuous tactic used by supporters of a measure to ban guns for individuals appearing on the FBI’s Terrorist Watch List: Their feigned ignorance that there is even an argument against theirs. It all seems so obvious if you listen to only them. Who wants to give guns to terrorists, anyway?
We’ve already covered the issue in enough depth that we won’t recap the reasons why it is unacceptable to deprive citizens of a constitutionally protected right based on their presence on an FBI watch list. This isn’t something that only gun owners should oppose—and fortunately, quite a few liberals and leftists with no love for firearms are beginning to speak up about the injustice that the president and his congressional allies are attempting to perpetrate.
It takes a certain amount of courage for these writers to take their heads out of the so-called “mainstream” media echo chamber and risk angering their political allies by speaking up. So consider this an honor roll of thoughtful—mostly anti-gun—liberals who are coming forward with the truth. We’re not saying we agree with everything in the following articles—far from it—but they’re certainly worth a perusal.
- Vox: “The liberal case against turning the no-fly list into a no-gun list,” German Lopez
- ThinkProgress: “The Problem With Banning Guns From People On The Terrorist Watch List,” Aviva Shen
- Los Angeles Times: “Should people on the no-fly list be able to buy guns? Yes,” The Times Editorial Board
- The Daily Beast: “My Fellow Liberals, Don’t Support Obama’s Terror Watch List Gun Ban,” Cathy Gellis
- The Guardian: “It’s messed up for Democrats to use the no-fly list to push for gun laws,” Trevor Timm
- The Washington Post: “The no-fly list is a terrible tool for gun control, in part because it is a terrible tool,” Philip Bump
- Slate: “President Obama Just Offered Two Bad Ideas For Fighting Gun Violence,” Jamelle Bouie
It also merits mention that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), while initially equivocating on the issue, eventually admitted that the Terrorist Watch List shouldn’t be used to prohibit gun purchases—at least yet. Given the group’s long-standing opposition to the Terrorist Watch List in general, we’d like to see a stronger rejection by ACLU of the suggested policy.
One final note: AWR Hawkins of Breitbart caught two notable instances of publications that previously criticized the Terrorist Watch List now cheerleading for its use as an instrument for gun prohibition. The Huffington Post, which in late November published a hysterical editorial about gun sales called “Our Congress Is Aiding And Abetting Terrorism,” featured a piece last year detailing ways that innocent citizens could end up on the list. And The New York Times, whose front-page editorial on gun control started an avalanche of anti-gun agitation, criticized the Terrorist Watch List a year ago. And we’re not talking about individual op-eds; the paper’s editorial board wrote both conflicting pieces.
But while HuffPo and The New York Times are jumping onto the Terrorist Watch List bandwagon now that the issue is tied to the guns they hate, a far greater number of liberal and leftist journalists are jumping off. Proponents of the gun ban have the audacity to say that they are simply “closing the Terror Loophole.” But strong opposition from both sides of the aisle, including media outlets that usually support President Barack Obama’s anti-gun agenda, should give him and his cronies pause.
