Do you “generally favor or oppose … preventing people who are on the U.S. government’s Terrorist Watchlist or no-fly list from owning guns?”
That’s how a CNN/ORC poll asked people if they want the government to use secret black lists to take away American citizens’ Second Amendment rights without even giving these people their Fifth Amendment right of due process under the law.
Given the way this question is worded and presented, who can blame 85 percent of respondents for saying they “favor” stopping terrorists from legally owning guns?
Any reasonable person wants law enforcement to investigate, watch, and, when necessary, prevent possible terrorists from getting guns.
It’s a safe guess that the 15 percent of the respondents who said they “oppose … preventing people who are on the U.S. government’s Terrorist Watchlist or no-fly list from owning guns,” simply knew this was a loaded question and refused to go along with the premise that the government should be able to take the U.S. Bill of Rights away from whomever it chooses without having its power checked by the judicial branch.
Nevertheless, CNN and many other news outlets are screaming that 85 percent of the American public wants to give the U.S. government this power.
But what they aren’t reporting is that this isn’t even necessary. The FBI can simply use its watch lists to see if or when a person on its “no-fly list,” or its other lists, attempts to buy guns from a federally licensed firearm dealer. The FBI also runs the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). All they need is for one part of the FBI to talk to another part of the FBI. When a person who is (or has been) on one of their lists attempts to purchase a gun, they could simply delay the sale for the three business days already allowed under federal law and get FBI agents moving to find out what’s going on. If charges need to be brought or search warrants issued, then they could go to the courts and make that happen.
This would also prevent possible terrorists from being informed by a failed background check that they are being watched.Any reasonable person wants law enforcement to investigate, watch, and, when necessary, prevent possible terrorists from getting guns.
Instead of reporting on any of this, CNN, and now politicians who see this as a means to get gun bans and stricter controls passed, are leaving out this part of the story and attempting to use dishonest polls like this one to take away Second Amendment rights.
Moreover, this CNN/ORC poll is asking a largely misinformed and uninformed public to answer its loaded question. The media hasn’t informed the public that taking away Second and Fifth Amendment rights isn’t necessary.
The poll is also skewed. In its “methodology” explanation it says, “A total of 1,001 adults were interviewed by telephone nationwide by live interviewers calling both landline and cell phones. Among the entire sample, 30 percent described themselves as Democrats, 23 percent described themselves as Republicans, and 47 percent described themselves as independents or members of another party.”
That means there were nearly 25 percent more Democrats than Republicans in the poll.
Some congressmen on the extreme left of the Democratic Party have even taken this skewed narrative so far that they opted to have a “sit-in” on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives until the House agrees to vote on this issue. These congressmen are counting on having an uninformed and misinformed public—thanks to this media spin—who will come to the conclusion that the Republican leadership in Congress wants to let domestic terrorists buy guns. This is political spin at its worst.
The most unfortunate part of this entire charade is that there is an opportunity in hand to further strengthen the war on terror through NICS, but these Democrats are throwing it away with their full-on assault on guns and gun owners.
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