Pirate's Cove

They haven’t seemed particularly concerned with all the other anti-gun laws being passed around the country in the States nor most of the other legislation proposed in the Democrat controlled Senate, but at least they say they have some concerns with one small piece

(Daily Caller) As Senate Democrats struggle to build support for new gun control legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union now says it’s among those who have “serious concerns” about the bill.

Those concerns have the capacity to prove a major setback to Sen. Harry Reid’s current gun bill, which includes language from earlier bills introduced by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Barbara Boxer.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller, a top lobbyist for the ACLU announced that the group thinks Reid’s current gun bill could threaten both privacy rights and civil liberties.

The ACLU’s Chris Calabrese said the ACLU is concerned with the background checks portion of Harry Reid’s gun control push. He and the ACLU (and myself) do not have a problem with doing a background check, but

“The first (problem) is that it treats the records for private purchases very differently than purchases made through licensed sellers. Under existing law, most information regarding an approved purchase is destroyed within 24 hours when a licensed seller does a [National Instant Criminal Background Check System] check now,” Calabrese said, “and almost all of it is destroyed within 90 days.”

The ACLU has concerns about creating a national governmental database and what the government will do with the data. The ACLU thinks the data should be destroyed just like with current background checks. They also note that the bill is vague about who will keep the data, and that it could end up in the hands of multiple other agencies for use for no one knows.

The ACLU’s second “significant concern” with Reid’s legislation is that it too broadly defines the term “transfer,” creating complicated criminal law that law-abiding Americans may unwittingly break.

“[I]t’s certainly a civil liberties concern,” Calabrese told TheDC. “You worry about, in essence, a criminal justice trap where a lawful gun owner who wants to obey the law inadvertently runs afoul of the criminal law.”

They’re also concerned with the creation of a school “tip line”, and how it could be abused and misused. I would hope they are concerned with many other facets of what is being proposed and/or passed, such as fingerprinting gun owners like they are criminals, violations of the 4th Amendment, mental health reporting procedures, violations of privacy, etc. But, the ACLU hasn’t ever seemed particularly interested in protecting the 2nd Amendment. The make it very clear down at the bottom of their webpage what they care about, and 2nd Amendment rights are not included.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.