During the December 15 under card GOP debate in Las Vegas, Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said we should not be able to deny Second Amendment rights “based on a list kept by the government that no one knows how they get on it or how they get off of it.”
He said if the list is someday changed and made public so people see how to get off it if accidentally included on it, then at that point it may be a different matter. But as it now stands, he said, the list has no business being incorporated into gun control laws.
Santorum said, “As long as this list is not well known, as long as it’s not transparent,” we cannot make the no-fly list part of the background check process.
The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, and CNN. all made similar arguments against including the no-fly list in gun control last week.
WAPO seized on the no-fly list’s imprecision and said it’s “a terrible tool for gun control because it’s a terrible tool.” The LA Times opposed including the list in gun control because it is a list of accused persons, not convicted persons. In light of this, the Times believes using the list to deny Second Amendment rights is an unconstitutional denial of due process. The Globe asked why people who are on the list are left free to walk around in society to begin with? After all, if they are too dangerous to be on a plane and, according to Democrats, too dangerous to be trusted with a gun, then why haven’t they been apprehended? And CNN seized on the same imprecision that the WAPO seized upon, citing the accidental inclusion of entertainers, U.S. Representatives, U.S. Senators, and others to show how many innocents would lose their constitutional rights if the list were included in gun control.
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