Did you know that people have been put on the No Fly list directed at suspected terrorists for doing nothing more than buying a one way ticket to the Middle East? I'm not making this up. Steve Hayes, a writer for the Weekly Standard, was a featured speaker on a cruise that left from Istanbul. He bought a one way ticket to that port and boarded the ship. After the cruise, when he tried to fly, he learned that his purchase had landed him a plum assignment to the No Fly list. No matter what he did, he could not get his name off the list. Then, the Secretary of Homeland Security appeared on a Fox News show and was asked about Hayes' problem (Hayes also being a Fox News Contributor.) The DHS secretary was embarrassed and made a call that got Hayes off the list.
Few people understand that there are a great many people on the No Fly list for every one who actually has any connection with terrorism. Indeed, there are more than half a million names on the list. All the current effort by Democrats to deny these people their basic right as an American to buy a gun completely ignores all these innocent people who will be penalized without even having any recourse. There was a bill offered in the Senate that would have alerted the government when someone on the No Fly list wanted to purchase a weapon and then given the government a short time to ask a court to bar the sale. It would have required that the government have some sort of evidence of terrorist involvement other than just the dreaded one-way ticket to Istanbul. The Democrats voted it down because it had been proposed by a Republican.
There really is a problem if terror suspects cannot be stopped from purchasing weapons. The remedy, however, is not political games but rational action. I know using rational action when talking about Congress is a stretch, but hope springs eternal.
Few people understand that there are a great many people on the No Fly list for every one who actually has any connection with terrorism. Indeed, there are more than half a million names on the list. All the current effort by Democrats to deny these people their basic right as an American to buy a gun completely ignores all these innocent people who will be penalized without even having any recourse. There was a bill offered in the Senate that would have alerted the government when someone on the No Fly list wanted to purchase a weapon and then given the government a short time to ask a court to bar the sale. It would have required that the government have some sort of evidence of terrorist involvement other than just the dreaded one-way ticket to Istanbul. The Democrats voted it down because it had been proposed by a Republican.
There really is a problem if terror suspects cannot be stopped from purchasing weapons. The remedy, however, is not political games but rational action. I know using rational action when talking about Congress is a stretch, but hope springs eternal.
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