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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."
I had assumed that this has been SOP for decades.
This story will probably get more attention than the CIA torture report. More attention than the NSA surveillance scandal. More attention than just about anything that actually _needs_ attention. Why? Gun nuts are paranoid as hell, that's why. Despite having the security of a firearm they're terrified that the government is going to sweep in and take them away for...what reason again? If anything it's in the US government's best interests for their citizens to be shooting each other dead, saves them ammunition on those shiny new NYPD vehicles with FUCKING MACHINE GUN TURRETS. There is absolutely no practical reason that anyone in the NYPD needs an armoured vehicle with a machine gun turret. Tihs is supposedly to help "fight" terror instead of "create" terror. Oh, of course they won't use them against protestors. Of course they won't.
Sometimes I think Americans are just going to sit on their asses and take all of this bullshit until the government actually does pull a Tiannamen Square on some protest, at which point the guns will finally be aimed at the people who truly deserve to have their heads blown off. Politicians.
First, do please define "sensible gun regulation".
Second, are you aware of how much 'gun regulation' already exists today both in federal, state & local statutes?
You are hard pressed to find a legal consumer good which is more regulated than firearms with regards to it's manufacture, sale, transport and use.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
You are a liar.
Venezuela's gun murder rate went UP after guns outlawed in 2012, from 68 per 100,000 to 79 per 100,000 in 2013.
Let's talk about another hispanic country that made guns illegal except for those who have signed paper by minister of defense, Mexico. A real crime free paradise there since citizens aren't allowed to have guns, eh?
so some random brain-fart email was sent, never acted upon, and this gets blown up into "planned to track owners"
If someone wants to have a serious discussion of the decades of problems the DEA has caused legitimate gun owners, and how they've armed murderers and cartel thugs, let's have a different article series. But I doubt anything would be approved as "story" on this site, it's fading into a place where people just cut and paste "news" from other sites instead of writing original material with sources. Just clickbait tabloid trash site now, how sad.
Taking Uber to gun show, check.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
Keeping an eye on the Mexican cartel's major source of weapons seems like a half-sensible suggestion. And since it's at least half sensible, it's completely unsurprising the DEA decided not to actually do it.
just because you are paranoid, doesnt mean you are wrong. I think the monitoring of our communications has proven as much
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
No, the burden of proof is on him after his allegation that this started under the Obama administration.
I, for one, would raise my most skeptical of eyebrows at the 'since Obama was elected' part.
The feds have had something of a mutually acrimonious relationship with some of the more enthusiastic personalities you find at gun shows since at least the very early 90's, probably earlier. If, say, Timothy McVeigh wasn't enough to inspire a few zillion man-hours in stakeouts, I'm not entirely sure what would.
The claims of surveillance I find fairly credible; but for it to have started in 2008 would have required that our hysteria over scary terrorist muslims completely blind the various relevant agencies to their ongoing togetherness problems with domestic militia movements and the like. Those certainly took on a lower priority; but there must have been some feds whose pallor and utter lack of arabic language proficiency made them a poor fit for higher profile work.
That's so 20th century. Our Government will take care of us, we don't need those pesky rights or even that Constitution. Just let the Government do it all for us!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The mere situation where they vehemently insist that sporting clubs are a "well organized militia" shows how far it has diverged from anything resembling reality.
you may want to educate yourself on the wording "well regulated militia" Because you are not using it in the proper context. Heres a hint. it has nothing to do with government regulations, and everything to do with owning guns in working order.
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Reading how the events went down http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... , one person with concealed carry could have stopped that deranged person with history of violence LONG before the body count went to double digits.
Australia's crime rate went up after guns were outlawed in 1996
Yeah and the massacre rate went to .... eer zero.
Anyone who thinks the ban on guns was to stop single murder is quite frankly stupid. There are many ways to kill. The thing that makes projectile weapons unique is that they can be used indiscriminately from a distance at multiple targets.
You want to stab me, you'll have to get close first. I have a fighting chance. .... well you have a fat chance.
You want to stab everyone in the room.
You have a gun and want to do either then you effectively have that power over others.
The gun laws in Australia did exactly what they say on the box, and it is an amazing contrast walking into a school in Australia compared to one in the USA where we for instance don't have or enact things like emergency plans when a student decide they feel like killing everyone in the school.
" NRA is "looking into this to see if gun owners were improperly targeted,"
I don't know who else would be targeted at a gun show so once the NRA picks up it's batphone you can bet the DEA will be as marginalized as the ATF (understaffed to monitor firearms nationwide, directorless for 7 years, etc), effectively ending the war on drugs.
The explicit point of the Second Amendment is not to allow "well regulated militia" to have firearms, but make ownership and use of firearms prevalent and unrestricted so that people who do end up in well-regulated militias are already familiar with firearms, both use and maintenance.
You forgot to mention that most "assault rifles" are often easily modifiable into a non-illegal configuration. Have a pistol grip? Quick! Replace it with a thumb-in-hole stock. Have a detachable magazine? Add a bullet button!
Unless the powers that be want to make illegal the Ruger 10/22 and standard hammer, any law seeking to limit access to an assault rifle or weapon that can be used to assault is rather pointless.
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
When the government comes out and says anything resembling "planned", "suggested", "considered", etc., it really means that they've been doing it for decades
No matter if the American government has carried out this 'car plate scanning' thing for decades, this announcement by itself is a PSY-OP and this mark the beginning of the government of the United States of America launching PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE on the Citizens of the United States of America
In other words, the government of the United States of America is no longer a government of the People, by the People and from the People --- The government of the United States of America has become a government AGAINST the People
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Would it blow your mind to know that current US Federal law defines the militia as "all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard"?
Seriously, it's 10 U.S. Code 311 - Militia: composition and classes
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
In the USA, we have bears, cougars, wolves, etc. Guns are essential in rural areas, and we don't (yet) have border checkpoints at the cities (except Manhattan I think)
in AUS, you have spiders, jellyfish, koalas, etc. Not even a bazooka will help you against them.
Yes and PI is 3.11 by law as well. Try again.
I would assume you're referring to the infamous Indiana state senate bill from 1897 in which an amateur mathematician attempted to have the state use his incorrect formulas to "square the circle", as it were. Firstly, that never became law. It was never even voted on in the Senate because after 30 minutes of laughing at the bill for being absurd, it was indefinitely tabled as a waste of time and money.
You also missed the "well regulated", and since gun clubs are opposed to regulation I'd be interested in how you weasel out of that one.
I most certainly did not miss "well regulated". The Oxford English Dictionary from the time that phrase was penned ought to help you understand why it doesn't help your argument. That can be found here: http://www.constitution.org/co...
Even without the help of the Oxford English Dictionary, one should be able to discern that a group of men who'd just used their personal firearms to overthrow their oppressive government would not mean to secure the right of the government - rather than the people - to keep and bear arms. That's absurd. One does not use firearms to overthrow an oppressive government only to turn around and insist that only the government should have firearms. It's a farcical view of history. Something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I learned how to fire a rifle at nine but I see it as a tool and not a flag or penis substitute.
Of course it's a tool. It's as much a tool as a hammer or a screwdriver or any other. However, its uses can be vastly more important. That doesn't elevate it to something beyond a tool and it should never be treated as anything but (with the obvious exception being as a collector's piece in some circumstances). However, it being a tool which can be used to secure freedom, life, and other basic human rights, the government cannot and must not deprive the people of it through force of law or otherwise.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."