NRA Joins ACLU Lawsuit Against NSA

cold fjord writes with this excerpt from The Hill: "The National Rifle Association joined the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit on Wednesday to end the government's massive phone record collection program. In a brief filed in federal court, the NRA argues that the National Security Agency's database of phone records amounts to a 'national gun registry.' 'It would be absurd to think that the Congress would adopt and maintain a web of statutes intended to protect against the creation of a national gun registry, while simultaneously authorizing the FBI and the NSA to gather records that could effectively create just such a registry,' the group writes. ... In its filing, the gun-rights group claims that the NSA's database would allow the government to identify and track gun owners based on whether they've called gun stores, shooting ranges or the NRA. 'Under the government's reading of Section 215, the government could simply demand the periodic submission of all firearms dealers' transaction records, then centralize them in a database indexed by the buyers' names for later searching,' the NRA writes."

Comments

This just in:

[geekoid]

The NRA continues to be a bunch of paranoid loons.

Re:This just in:

[i kan reed]

Yeah, you sure can edit those to hide the context of those to pretend it's about all guns. Nice use of the ellipsis there, and with no link back to an original source.

A+ for effort!

Re:This just in:

[i kan reed]

They're about a specific class of gun, that hasn't been constitutionally ruled to be protected by the 2nd amendment. Intentionally being misleading then saying "aha, but now I will misinterpret what you said to show you as an idiot" isn't being reasonable.

Re:So it has come to this

[ackthpt]

When the NRA and ACLU both oppose something, you know it's bad for everyone.

They both must be recoiling in disgust that they are both on the same side of something ... but while the ACLU pursues matters through leveraging law, the NRA advocates remedying government amok with a more pointed (or hollow pointed) approach. Fascinating.

So NRA people, why are you not attacking teh evil gummint with your 2nd amendment rights? I do not understand this using lawyers method, which is entirely contradictory to all this ballyhoo about needing guns, many and large.

I feel cheated.

Re:So it has come to this

[mspohr]

5M NRA members with pea shooters are no match for the US Army (think big guns, tanks, helicopters, etc... you get the idea).
It's amusing to see NRA members boasting that they can "defend themselves against the guvmt"... good luck with that.

Re:you know hell has frozen over

[AlphaWolf_HK]

You may as well call this a wasted effort then. One group is fighting this, so why does the other need to get involved?

The ACLU has been very much just the lawyer arm of the democratic party, for good or bad. When you look at their history, if it is a civil liberty that the democratic party doesn't want, then the ACLU doesn't defend it.

The best indicator of this would be the copyright trolls. Hollywood basically owns the democratic party, and the ACLU doesn't seem to do much of anything about censorship that comes from the **AA.

Re:you know hell has frozen over

[jsepeta]

The NRA's main purpose is to keep it legal for white men to own guns to shoot black men, pure and simple. Their work allows all men to kill all men. It's a dumb organization with a hateful, harmful purpose and lots of wrong has been done thanks to their efforts.