HR 10: National Database

[Desertrat]

I just ran across a reference to this. A member of Gun Owners of America posted it on TheHighRoad.org, but the ramifications make guns a piddly-diddly small part of the deal:

"(1) The government database is created by section 2173 of HR 10, a
bill introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. It would allow
airline passengers to be screened against lists containing "all
appropriate records." What would be "appropriate" would
be within the exclusive discretion of the bureaucrats, but could include
medical records, confidential financial records, library records, and
gun records.

(2) The driver's license standards are in section 3052. They would
allow the federal government to set standards as high as desired to
determine who may or may not obtain a driver's license. Please note
that you need a driver's license (or similarly regulated state-issued
photo ID) to purchase a gun from a dealer. But, increasingly, you
also need it to travel on any form of transportation (airplane, bus,
train, car), to get a job, to open a checking account, to cash a
check, to check into a hotel, to rent a car, or to purchase
cigarettes or alcohol. If the federal government can set standards
so high as to deny you a driver's license or photo ID, it has
effectively turned you into a non-person.

(3) Section 2142 would allow the U.S. attorney general to promulgate
any regulations he desires concerning (a) what employers must submit
the names and fingerprints of all employment applicants to the FBI,
(b) what standards the government will use in approving or
disapproving the employment applicants, and (c) whether or not the
government's "disapproval" will prevent the applicant from being
hired.

There is nothing in section 2142 which would prohibit an anti-gun
attorney general from (a) requiring the resumes and fingerprints of
every employment applicant in the country, (b) disapproving them on
the basis of gun ownership or, for that matter, any factor he viewed
as not being politically correct, and (c) prohibiting any employer
from hiring an applicant thus blacklisted."

"anti-gun" AG? An anti-anybody AG would have way too much power! Like I said, guns as guns just ain't even in this deal! Read the wrong books? Ever had a prescription for nervous tension? Smoke? Drink? Speed down a highway? Go to the "wrong" church?

'Rat

[mischief]

Originally Posted by Desertrat

I just ran across a reference to this. A member of Gun Owners of America posted it on TheHighRoad.org, but the ramifications make guns a piddly-diddly small part of the deal:

"(1) The government database is created by section 2173 of HR 10, a
bill introduced by House Speaker Dennis Hastert. It would allow
airline passengers to be screened against lists containing "all
appropriate records." What would be "appropriate" would
be within the exclusive discretion of the bureaucrats, but could include
medical records, confidential financial records, library records, and
gun records.

(2) The driver's license standards are in section 3052. They would
allow the federal government to set standards as high as desired to
determine who may or may not obtain a driver's license. Please note
that you need a driver's license (or similarly regulated state-issued
photo ID) to purchase a gun from a dealer. But, increasingly, you
also need it to travel on any form of transportation (airplane, bus,
train, car), to get a job, to open a checking account, to cash a
check, to check into a hotel, to rent a car, or to purchase
cigarettes or alcohol. If the federal government can set standards
so high as to deny you a driver's license or photo ID, it has
effectively turned you into a non-person.

(3) Section 2142 would allow the U.S. attorney general to promulgate
any regulations he desires concerning (a) what employers must submit
the names and fingerprints of all employment applicants to the FBI,
(b) what standards the government will use in approving or
disapproving the employment applicants, and (c) whether or not the
government's "disapproval" will prevent the applicant from being
hired.

There is nothing in section 2142 which would prohibit an anti-gun
attorney general from (a) requiring the resumes and fingerprints of
every employment applicant in the country, (b) disapproving them on
the basis of gun ownership or, for that matter, any factor he viewed
as not being politically correct, and (c) prohibiting any employer
from hiring an applicant thus blacklisted."

"anti-gun" AG? An anti-anybody AG would have way too much power! Like I said, guns as guns just ain't even in this deal! Read the wrong books? Ever had a prescription for nervous tension? Smoke? Drink? Speed down a highway? Go to the "wrong" church?

'Rat

Ironically it's the Paranoia for security bashing heads with the Paranoia for liberties that gives us such idiotic laws as we have now. THere has to be legislation written from a middle course or nothing will ever be effective at making the right things happen.

[mactastic]

Wait, the government is going to give itself the power to keep records of anyone it damn well feels like? I'm shocked; shocked I tell you. Who would have imagined such a thing? Not MLK, or John Lenin by any means. Nor Cesar Chavez, Albert Einstein, or Abbie Hoffman.

So the right is finally getting paranoid about their own government spying on them? Welcome to the revolution 'Rat.

Pardon the sarcasm, I understand that this is not a good development; but this only makes it slightly worse.