National Security Is No Excuse to Restrict Our Right to Defend OurselvesBy TJ Martinell For gun grabbers, its a clever way to get both sides of the aisle on the same page. Forone side, it provides an opportunity to finally get unpopular (and ineffective) gun control measures passed. For the other side, the ban makes them look respectably bipartisan and tough on terrorism. I use the word look instead of be tough on terrorism because this idea is just more of the same rhetoric weve come to anticipate from the federal government and its apologists; proposals that infringe on the rights of innocent peoplewhile failing to solve a problem it created in the first place. From a purely practical view, the concept relies on the feds actually knowing who the terrorists are and accurately identifying them. It seems their suspicions need fine-tuning. According to The Intercept, almost half of the people on the feds database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group. This kind of ban provides the convenient precedent for a future president to simply place anyone they dont like on the watch-list or no-fly list in order to restrict their gun rights. If this were to occur, apersoncan have their right to keep and bear arms stripped from them without any kind of trial or means of recourse based solely on the secret discretion of a few individuals. Just as the IRS is used as a weapon against political opponents, these lists could be used against anyone who poses a threat to a would-be tyrant. If youre a regular reader here at the TAC, that probably includes you. Even if youre not, sooner or later someone who be in charge you oppose or who doesnt like people such as yourself. Needless to say, the federal government has no authority in any way whatsoever to restrict the right to keep and bear arms. If a person is suspected of a crime, the matter should be investigated. If sufficient evidence is found indicating a crime has been committed, then the person should be arrested, charged with the crime, and tried. Only after theyve been found guilty in a court of law do they forfeit anyrights. Our rights are not lost by mere suspicion. They are not contingent upon whether or not other people exercise those rights lawfully. We should not be silenced or censored because others libel or defame. Likewise, we do not lose our right to keep and bear arms because someone else used their guns to commit murder rather than self-defense. The arguments we hear today about keeping guns out of the hands of suspected terrorists is no different than the discussion about putting innocent Japanese Americans into internment camps after Pearl Harbor. No matter what the Supreme Court decidedafterwards, the decision was not just unconstitutional. It was more than a waste of military resources when they were needed elsewhere. It was an egregious violation of the rights of innocent people. The Japanese internment set a terrible precedent that remains today, and might very well be used by a future president. Its at times of crisis that our liberties are endangered the most because its then that people are the most willing to give up those rights for the sake of national security. What they dont realize is that we are most safe when we are free. Once our rights are surrendered for temporary security they are never returned, and the security promised by the agreed price fails to arrive. Think carefully about what rights you consider worth surrendering for a false promise of national security. TJ Martinell is a Seattle-based reporter and author of the Orwellian novel The Stringers. Visit his personal site at tjmartinell.com. He writes for The Tenth Amendment Center, where this article first appeared. Orlando, Paris, Sandy Hook and many other shootings were staged in order to promote the globalist agenda I hope and pray that one day all of the participants would be hold accountable.. Yes, ACCOUNTABLE Im with you. No way was Orlando real. Sandy Hoax was laughable. Now get this. On the day of Sandy Hoax the DHS was doing a drill eleven miles away in a town called Carmel, N.Y. Guess what the DHS was drilling for on the very same day and time Sandy Hoax was unfolding? You guessed it, the DHS was drilling for an active school shooter. Now here is another little tidbit. Sandy Hoax and Carmel, N.Y. are right on Interstate 84, a modern highway. Yup. Especially when hostile legal and illegal immigrants who have committed many heinous crimes are roaming free. there can be no national security if there is no personal security Americas National Security IS THE REASON for the 2nd Amendment; and secondarily the liberty of its people . Near as I see it the entire Usurped States from the house to the senate to the no-name potus and the 1st queen are all complicit and should be put on the list. 