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“Citizens on terror watch list may buy guns in U.S.”
“Terror Gap In U.S. Law Lets Suspects Buy Guns.”

Those headlines from news outlets across the nation mark a massive propaganda campaign to garner swift support for arguably the most dangerous federal law considered in modern times—New Jersey U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's Senate bill 1317. That law would bestow unilateral dictatorial powers on the U.S. attorney general to subjectively make what the Justice Department calls a "dangerous terrorist determination"—a secret edict that specifically strips individual Americans of their Second Amendment rights and any rights to due process. It would literally give the attorney general, whoever that might be, stealth power to turn citizens into instant felons.

The bill titled, "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009," would empower the Justice Department to secretly determine, through a totally closed process, that an individual cannot buy a gun and ultimately cannot possess firearms if he or she:

"... is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of or related to terrorism, or providing material support or resources for terrorism."

So, need a peek at where this is really going?

Look no further than the Brady Center's recent manifesto titled "Guns and Hate," published in conjunction with the June 22 introduction of Lautenberg's bill:

"The National Rifle Association and others in the gun lobby have for years employed inflammatory extremist and anti-government rhetoric that bears a chilly similarity to some of the language of hate groups followed by ... dangerous extremists." (Emphasis added.)

Extremist? Anti-government?

Hmmm. They must be talking about NRA's reaction to the New Orleans city government's forcible disarmament of civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Now remember those words—"extremist" and "anti-government." In some pockets of the Obama administration, those words officially define domestic "terrorism."

Again from the Brady Center:
"NRA should be aware of the ominous connection between its inflammatory rhetoric and violent acts of domestic terrorism."

There it is in a nutshell. If you are an NRA member and you object to the threat of government taking your guns—perhaps through this legislation or perhaps through the Brady Campaign's push for an "assault weapons" ban—you are related to "terrorism." Add to that equation the fact that the standard for secretly judging individual Americans as unfit to own guns is "appropriately suspected," and you see where all this is going.

Please note, possession of firearms by real terrorists is already covered by federal law with harsh penalties. Under existing federal law, anyone who receives, purchases, transfers or transports any firearm with the intent of committing a violent crime—terrorism included—is committing a host of federal felonies.

The Justice Department lawyers who originally penned this legislation for Lautenberg referred to the process of rights erasure as a "dangerous terrorist determination."

Under this legislation, a firearm transfer under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) could be denied to any individual tagged with a "dangerous terrorist determination." Furthermore, that label could be used to deny or revoke Federal Firearms Licenses for dealers, gunsmiths, distributors, collectors, manufacturers or importers. With the stroke of a secret pen, under the guise of "domestic terrorism," whole segments of lawful firearms commerce could be wiped out.

Lautenberg's legislation would additionally empower the federal attorney general to deny or cancel state licenses related to firearms—say, a concealed-carry permit in Oklahoma, or an owner's license, like the Illinois Firearm Owner's Identification Card. Arguably, a hunting license could be taken or denied.

Yet that's just the beginning of this bestowal of nightmare powers to a few secret bureaucrats.

If the government officially informs a person that he's been tagged in a "dangerous terrorist determination," that individual would automatically be thrown into the Federal Gun Control Act's Section 922(g) "prohibited person" category—joining convicted felons, adjudicated lunatics and fugitives from justice for whom possession of any firearm is a federal felony.

Giving or selling a gun to such a person is a felony.

Actually, this is not about "terrorists" buying guns. This is about secretly accused citizens possessing guns. This is about freedom-loving Americans being transformed by a stealth process into felons. It involves secret lists created with secret dossiers.

Real terrorists, by the way, will never appear on any such list because to deny them a firearm purchase through a NICS check would tip them off that law enforcement is watching them.

So, if you found yourself on the no-gun list, how could you appeal?

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