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DEA Planned To Monitor Cars Parked At Gun Shows Using License Plate Readers
HughPickens.com writes According to a newly disclosed DEA email obtained by the ACLU through the Freedom of Information Act, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives collaborated on plans to monitor gun show attendees using automatic license plate readers. Responding to inquiries about the document, the DEA said that the monitoring of gun shows was merely a proposal and was never implemented. "The proposal in the email was only a suggestion. It was never authorized by DEA, and the idea under discussion in the email was never launched,'' says DEA administrator Michele Leonhart.
According to the Wall Street Journal the proposal shows the challenges and risks facing the U.S. as it looks to new, potentially intrusive surveillance technology to help stop criminals. Many of the government's recent efforts have scooped up data from innocent Americans, as well as those suspected of crimes, creating records that lawmakers and others say raise privacy concerns. "Automatic license plate readers must not be used to collect information on lawful activity — whether it be peacefully assembling for lawful purposes, or driving on the nation's highways," says the ACLU. "Without strong regulations and greater transparency, this new technology will only increase the threat of illegitimate government surveillance." National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam says the NRA is "looking into this to see if gun owners were improperly targeted, and has no further comment until we have all the facts."
According to the Wall Street Journal the proposal shows the challenges and risks facing the U.S. as it looks to new, potentially intrusive surveillance technology to help stop criminals. Many of the government's recent efforts have scooped up data from innocent Americans, as well as those suspected of crimes, creating records that lawmakers and others say raise privacy concerns. "Automatic license plate readers must not be used to collect information on lawful activity — whether it be peacefully assembling for lawful purposes, or driving on the nation's highways," says the ACLU. "Without strong regulations and greater transparency, this new technology will only increase the threat of illegitimate government surveillance." National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam says the NRA is "looking into this to see if gun owners were improperly targeted, and has no further comment until we have all the facts."
Same path as meth, crack, coke, and pot come the guns. The DEA is just doing its job, and when sensible gun regulation is passed (bringing the US up with civilized nations like England and Japan), it will be the DEA's job as well as BATF to disarm the crackpots.
Even a "turd world" country like Venezuela had its gun crime drop to 1/1000 of what it used be a couple years ago because they banned private citizen ownership of firearms. If that country can do it, the US can. Plus, the US can actually enforce the laws. Got a gun? Go to prison. End of story.
The NRA always comes out and says stupid things like that if everyone at Charlie Hebdo had had a gun nobody would have died (when in fact many more people probably would have).
If nobody had had a gun then nobody would have been killed (probably).
If you have a gun for your personal use (ie you are not a farmer) then I want you watched as a terrorist, because that's exactly what you are (attempting to hold your physical power over me, without ever having earned my trust to do so).
Sorry if that upsets you Murricans.
It's OK Bender, there's no such thing as 2.
You aren't responsible for interpreting the constitution. The judiciary is, and SCOTUS is the final authority on the matter. You probably don't want to go around making absolute statements about what is and is not constitutional unless you have a current SCOTUS opinion to back you up, because you start to look crazy.
Yes, society has evolved since the constitution was drafted, which in turn has led to the legislature altering the constitution or the laws which were interpreted by SCOTUS in a way that was widely disliked. Yes, SCOTUS has overruled its own decisions in the past because the people that composed it changed, or the minds of the people that composed it were changed.
But gun law and the Second Amendment is on the wrong side of things for there to be a sudden turn around. The McDonald decision was 5-4, and only one of the dissenting judges was actually concerned about the interpretation of the Second Amendment as a fundamental right. So you don't really have to worry about SCOTUS going after the Second Amendment (though it would be interesting if they examined the currently deprecated militia language), and it seems unlikely that the government's ability to place 'reasonable restraints' on gun ownership is going to change anytime soon.
It may be worth your time to actually investigate the law that has been derived from the Second Amendment, as that is more relevant to your current concerns than the actual wording of the Second Amendment at this point.
And just because the Supreme Court says the Constitution says something that it doesn't (like a personal right to gun ownership) doesn't make it right.
We didn't have a personal right to gun ownership for 200 years until Ronald Reagan's AG started pushing a racist agenda of the second amendment movement.
I bet you didn't know that when Reagan was governor of California, 20-30 Black Panthers marched on the state capital bearing rifles in a peaceful protest. A week later, Governor Reagan proposed gun control legislation (which passed). There was no "Second Amendment Movement" until it became a white thing. By then, enough Black Panthers had been murdered in their beds that any gun rights movement in the African American community was to be stifled for half a century.
Fuck you and your bogus "Second Amendment (but ignore the first clause)"
You are welcome on my lawn.
Guns don't make a populace harder to control, and haven't for some time. A modern military full of trained soldiers can effortlessly contain even the best armed populace. A bunch of gun nuts and their toys don't have the resources to compete with a standing army...
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You ARE aware that's completely and utterly irrelevant to how the NRA and it's followers have acted for more than 30 years? Just as the Tea Party started on opposition to bank bailouts, but rapidly became nothing more than tools for the RNC.
Gun nuts are tools of the gun manufacturing industry, nothing more, nothing less. Think that's unfair, regale me with tales of defense funds set up by gun nuts for those who defend themselves from out of control cops with firearms.
Weapons are just another form of power like knowledge or freedom.
One of these things is not like the others. One of these things is not quite the same.
Hint: Knowledge and freedom don't generally put your wife 6 feet under when your 3-year-old gets hold of one of them and figures out how to disengage the safety.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.