Action alert: Dangerous gun control legislation being offered up by Republicans

Written by Amy Strong. Virginia state president of The American Guard

A new bill introduced earlier this year by Senator Marco Rubio (Republican, Florida), S.265, intends to introduce behavioral assessments into determining if someone could possibly be a future threat. This bill, simply stated, would allow several groups of both government and NGO’s (Non Government Organizations) to decide if your interests, social media, and hobbies indicate that you are outside of the norm of what society finds acceptable behavior. The bill states it’s intention as “identifying individuals who are exhibiting patterns of concerning behavior that indicate an interest, motive, intention, or capability of carrying out an act of violence” and “the subsequent management of such a threat, if necessary.” Notice they used the conjunction “or” instead of “and”. This means that any one of these factors can put you on the list. You could have what they consider to be the ability to carry our violence (military, LEO training, or simply owning too many weapons) with no intent or motive and still be targeted. You could have what they consider to be a motive (legitimate grievances or political activism) with no interest, intent, or capability and still end up targeted. The entire bill seems intentionally broad and vague. Leaving the door open for far too many Americans to be deprived due process.

Also particularly concerning is where the information that they want to collect to determine if you make “the list” comes from. Elementary schools, secondary schools, early childhood education programs, colleges and vocational schools. They really want to start with the children early. Considering the liberal state of the American education system, we are worried that typical childhood behaviors or even merely politically incorrect ideas could be reported if the teacher deems it bothersome.

Another aspect of concern lies with the use of NGO’s. NGO’s were created in 1945 under the United Nations. Most NGO’s are privately funded, and are fronts for social issues. The bill also includes the use of data collection from Fusion Centers. Fusion Centers were created by George W. Bush after the 911 attack to collect all data complied about citizens in one place, in collaboration with all other federal agencies. Former President Bush also introduced Operation TIPS, which encouraged citizens to spy on and report other citizens activity, which went into the Fusion Centers. Through Operation TIPS, everyone down to your plumber or cable guy was asked to snoop around your house for anything to report. In two separate reports from the ACLU, they stated that these Fusion Centers “allows the authorities to manipulate differences in federal, state and local laws to maximize information collection while evading accountability and oversight through the practice of ‘policy shopping’.” and that they were creating a “total surveillance society”. If this bill were to pass, within 30 days there would be a Joint Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Task Force established to assess if your behavior, thoughts, and hobbies make you a threat. Do you go to the shooting range once a month? Do you listen to violent music? Do you make offensive and insensitive memes? Do your children play cops and robbers? Do you go to a church that believes in traditional marriage? There’s no clear line when looking at “behaviors” as to who may be a threat five, ten, or even twenty years down the road. Think of how the social medias have abused what started out as clear Terms of Service violations to encompass political speech they disagree with. This bill leaves the government wide open to do the same with your gun rights.

Even more important is how do they intend to manage such perceived threats for supposed crimes that haven’t happened yet, and probably won’t. What do they mean by “the subsequent management of such a threat”? Will this be similar to the “Red Flag Laws” that have been enacted in several states where if your neighbor thinks you’re creepy they can call the police and have them show up with their guns drawn to take your legal weapons? One person has already been killed by police since this law was enacted. His only crime was not wanting to turn in his legally owned firearms. The slippery slope that many of us have talked about for years after the passing of the Patriot Act and U.N. involvement is pretty close to hitting the creek at the bottom. If it does, the few freedoms we have left will be washed downstream. Please reach out to your elected leaders and demand that they put a stop to this. Also, reach out to your neighbors and friends. Our liberties have been eroding at such a fast pace that people are noticing and want to do something about it, but many don’t know how. Help teach and guide them back to freedom.

You can find information about contacting your Senators here:

https://www.senate.gov/general/contacting.htm

Please do so. Stand up for your rights or lose them. Tell them no on Senate 265 and all gun control legislation.