Is Trump to the Left of the ACLU on Guns?
Donald Trump’s record on the Second Amendment has been mixed. Trump has supported the so-called “assault weapons” ban and favors a longer waiting period to buy a gun. Now he has taken it one step further and has come out in favor of banning weapons sales to people put on a no-fly list with no due process.
This is something that even the ACLU is against. That’s right, Trump is now to the left of the ACLU on guns.
Here’s what Trump said yesterday via tweet.
I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2016
This is something that liberals have been pushing since the attacks in San Bernardino last year. At the time of the attack, the ACLU came out strongly against this position.
Last night, in response to last week’s tragic attack in San Bernardino, California, President Obama urged Congress to ensure that people on the No Fly List be prohibited from purchasing guns. Last week, Republicans in Congress defeated a proposal that would have done just that. “I think it’s very important to remember people have due process rights in this country, and we can’t have some government official just arbitrarily put them on a list,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said.
There is no constitutional bar to reasonable regulation of guns, and the No Fly List could serve as one tool for it, but only with major reform. As we will argue to a federal district court in Oregon this Wednesday, the standards for inclusion on the No Fly List are unconstitutionally vague, and innocent people are blacklisted without a fair process to correct government error. Our lawsuit seeks a meaningful opportunity for our clients to challenge their placement on the No Fly List because it is so error-prone and the consequences for their lives have been devastating.
That’s right. The liberal ACLU has come out against using the no-fly list, with its lack of due process, as a means to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to own a gun. Donald Trump is now officially to the left of the ACLU in that regard.
He has also been endorsed by the NRA. Who is still steadfastly against Trump’s suggestion.
Restrictions like bans on gun purchases by people on "watch lists" are ineffective, unconstitutional, or both https://t.co/MQfbYnTDAE
— NRA (@NRA) June 14, 2016
Will the NRA rescind that endorsement? (For more from the author of “Is Trump to the Left of the ACLU on Guns?” please click HERE)
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