gun nuts exempt from total information awareness

March 1, 2003 4:34 PM

Federal authorities believe the list of convicted felons, drug dealers, suspected terrorists, spouse beaters, illegal immigrants and others should only be used to help gun dealers determine if someone is allowed to buy a gun, not police investigating other gun-control violations.

Say what?
posted by artifex (9 comments total)

Hold on, lemme go grab my Ashcroft-whoopin' bat!
posted by Yelling At Nothing at 4:48 PM on March 1, 2003

Don't you wish you had voted etcetera?
posted by Pretty_Generic at 4:52 PM on March 1, 2003

It's the "and others" part that I find most scary... in this "you're with us or you're against us" era, no doubt "political dissenters" will soon make it to the list.
posted by clevershark at 4:56 PM on March 1, 2003

As left wing as mefi is, I'm probably preaching to the choir here. But does this administration have one single shred of modern moralistic scruples about it? There are these little inhumane fallacies that seem to poison all of their positions, little logical catches and snags here and there that make anyone paying attention go, "HUH?!?!".

As much as I abhor what they're doing to this country and planet, I cannot ever cease to be amazed at some of this chicanery, that even still, I always knew they were capable of.

Say Premillenialist dispensationalists! I say. We have your anti-christs!
posted by crasspastor at 5:06 PM on March 1, 2003

Guns don't kill people, bongs kill people.
posted by homunculus at 5:09 PM on March 1, 2003

Frankly I fail to see the AG's logic in assessing that people who make bongs are more dangerous than those who have acquired weapons illegally.

Then again perhaps my failing here is to imagine that there must be a logic behinds the actions of a man who honestly believes that you'll go to hell if you engage in such devious activities as dancing. I'll bet even the Amish would consider Ashcroft an extremist.
posted by clevershark at 5:15 PM on March 1, 2003

Pure pandering to the pro-gun people. And further proof that this administration is unconcerned about Americans safety. They are only interested in control.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 6:23 PM on March 1, 2003

Well, the Georgia law discussed at the bottom of the article is just wrong. Innocent until proven guilty and all that--a rather important principle. If you make guns totally illegal, fine, but you can't deny people because they have been accused of a felony but not convicted. The federal database question is trickier, but with all the debate over the past few years about who gets to keep what information and use it in what ways, I'm not surprised. I don't know much about the database, but it seems to me that if it was created for background checks, it's probably a bad idea to try to use it for enforcement--the data collection standards seem like they could be very different. Or it could just be posturing by Ashcroft.
posted by Nothing at 6:30 PM on March 1, 2003

If I am a convicted felon, I should buy guns but DEFINITELY avoid checking dangerous books out of the library.

Welcome to the other side of the looking glass. My name's Alice and I'll be your guide...
posted by Sr_Cluba at 12:12 AM on March 2, 2003