On December 8, the Boston Globe asked why the individuals on the no-fly list are anything other than under arrest if they pose such a danger to public safety?
In so doing the Globe joined a growing chorus of voices criticizing the no-fly list. Those voices include The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and CNN.
According to the Globe, the most troublesome aspect about the no-fly list is the fact that the people believed to be so dangerous are actually being allowed to remain free to move about in society on a daily basis. If these people were simply arrested–or deported, when applicable–it would both increase the safety of Americans and remove the need for more laws/regulations to keep no-fly listees in check.
The Globe observed:
If people on the no-fly list and the even more comprehensive terrorist-screening watchlist pose such an urgent threat to national security, why haven’t they been arrested? If horrors like the San Bernardino massacre could have been prevented by incapacitating the individuals on the watchlists, surely it is sheer recklessness to do nothing until they try to board a plane or buy a gun.
The Globe suggested the failure to arrest is perhaps tied to the broad understanding of the fact that n0-fly list is undependable to begin with; that it is an imprecise tool that contains many names that ought not be on it. And when Democrats latch on to this “sloppy” list in order to expand gun control, it “isn’t ‘common sense” but “cynical grandstanding.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.