In the rush to do something following recent shootings in El Paso, Dayton and Odessa, many of the usual elected and other suspects dusted off their well-worn playbooks to push their favorite legislative restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms. They’re pushing the usual wish list items like “universal” background checks, magazine capacity limits, another “assault weapons” ban, and their new favorite, red flag laws.
But one bipartisan proposal is beginning to gain traction, including among GOP members of the House and Senate, where the others haven’t…the Threat Assessment, Prevention and Safety Act of 2019, or TAPS (see our earlier post here).
The bill is being sold as giving state and local officials the training and resources to work with law enforcement and mental health professionals to identify individuals who are potential risks for violence.
But the bill’s details are more worrisome than the anodyne description being used by those who are selling it. TAPS would create a new bureaucracy tasked with developing “behavioral threat assessments” on anyone exhibiting “patterns of concerning behavior.” And it would enlist social media companies and others to help develop these individual profiles.
What could possibly go wrong?
The bill was introduced in the House by Brian Babin (R-TX) and Val Demings (D-FL) and in the Senate by Marco Rubio (R-FL), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Thom Tillis (R-NC). The proposal has gotten support from some you might not expect, such as Texas’s Dan Crenshaw.
Given how vaguely it’s written, TAPS has the potential for morphing into the kind of social credit system even the Chinese would envy.
The Firearms Policy Coalition has written up a useful summary of the bill’s provisions that everyone should read.
The Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019 (“TAPS Act”) is a legislative proposal introduced as H.R. 838 in the wake of, and in response to, highly televised mass murders. The Act’s purported purpose is “[t]o develop a national strategy to prevent targeted violence through behavioral threat assessment and management, and for other purposes.”
To develop a “national strategy,” the bill would establish a task force consisting of 24 unelected, generally unsupervised individuals who are free to change their own operating rules and procedures at a moment’s notice. The Task Force would provide training and recommendations on how to use state and local assets to build databases of information on private people, to collaborate with private entities (including social media companies) and schools to do the same, and on using mental health professionals to “assist” in assessing threats.”
The terms defined in the TAPS Act are murky not because of poor drafting, but because this bill is an attempt to establish a domestic surveillance program to monitor private people. When the goal is to collect information for the purpose of building massive databases, vague terms are government’s best friend. Especially when the officials implementing the scheme would largely be the same ones interpreting it.
The Act would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to issue grants to “eligible entities” in order to encourage those entities to hand information to “fusion centers,” which are defined as collaborative efforts of state, federal, and local governments “with the goal of maximizing the ability of such agencies to detect, prevent, investigate, apprehend, and respond to criminal or terrorist activity.” The government could then use the data it collected to build behavioral models based on otherwise harmless behavior such as purchasing two handguns in one month. That model could then be used to target unwitting, innocent gun owners as potential “threats.”
The TAPS Act is potentially disastrous for those intent on exercising their right to keep and bear arms, and assuredly catastrophic for the privacy rights reserved to the People under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
History
Sponsored by Representative Brian Babin (TX-36), the Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019[7] was introduced to Congress on January 29, 2019 in H.R. 838 and passed to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on March 25, 2019.[8]
State of the Issue
The stated purpose of H.R. 838 is “[t]o develop a national strategy to prevent targeted violence through behavioral threat assessment and management, and for other purposes.”[9] The Congressional findings posit that “incidents of targeted violence are impacting our Nation frequently and indiscriminately”[10] and that the federal government can “rapidly develop behavioral threat assessment and management guidelines and best practices.”[11]
This leaves out, of course, an important question: At what cost to our liberty and constitutional principles?
The term “behavioral threat assessment and management” is defined in the Act as “the systematic and evidence-based process of”:
(A) identifying individuals who are exhibiting patterns of concerning behavior that indicate an interest, motive, intention, or capability of carrying out an act of violence;
(B) investigating and gathering information from multiple sources to assess whether an individual described in subparagraph (A) poses a threat, based on articulable facts; and
(C) the subsequent management of such a threat, if necessary.[12]
In other words: wholesale domestic surveillance and callous disregard of the Fourth Amendment. “Gathering information from multiple sources” is merely a polite way to say gathering intelligence using classified and/or unclassified sources. In other words: whatever they can get their hands on.
The TAPS Act would create a “Task Force” consisting of up to 24 “experts” in “behavioral threat assessment and management,” to develop “a national strategy to prevent targeted violence” in communities and schools.[13]
“Subject to applicable privacy laws and regulations, the Task Force may secure directly from any Federal department or agency information necessary to enable it to carry out the duties of the Task Force.”[14] The task force would make recommendations regarding:
1) How to most effectively utilize existing infrastructure.
2) How to improve the way different levels of government assess and manage threats. And how to improve the way they work together to do so.
3) A training program to help government employees and “private entities with protective or public safety responsibilities” work together and share information.
4) Another training program, similar to that described in #3, but designed for schools.
5) How mental health professionals may assist in assessing threats.[15]
All of these objectives are essential to intelligence gathering, processing, and dissemination. Training on utilization of infrastructure and information sharing equates to pipelining intelligence from assets back to an operations center. The bill’s author also conveniently omitted a definition of “private entities with protective or public safety responsibilities.” As a result, this bill may allow “fusion center[s]”[16] and other law enforcement entities to collect information on individuals, or more succinctly stated: domestic surveillance.
The Secretary of Homeland Security would take the Task Force’s recommendations and create “a national strategy relating to behavior threat assessment and management.”[17] The Secretary would be able to provide financial incentives through grants and/or contracts to states, local governments, educational entities, public agencies, and private entities to implement the “national strategy.” By providing these incentives, DHS will solidify its grasp on state, local, and even private resources for intelligence collection. All this, to focus on “behavior threat assessment,” or, as it can be more appropriately called, “pre-crime.”
Regarding firearms, the bill expressly forbids any appropriated funds from being used to “train any individual in the use of a firearm” or to “encourage or discourage the otherwise legal ownership and use of firearms.”[18] Additionally, “Nothing in this Act may be construed to preclude or contradict any other provision of law authorizing the provision of firearms or training in the use of firearms.”[19]
Despite the language that seemingly ensures firearm ownership and current gun laws will not be affected, this bill is ripe for abuse. Some of the many concerns with the TAPS Act are outlined below.
- The task force could consider many typical behaviors of gun-owners, or other groups, to be indicative of a capability to carry out violence. Common, lawful practices like: purchasing ammunition in bulk to get a lower price, buying more than one handgun in a month, or an interest in anything disfavored by the task force (think: “assault weapons,” or “extreme” political positions). Based on such lawful behavior alone, implementing the “national strategy” might require investigating innocent people and then taking action to “manage” nonexistent threats.
- The fact that the Task Force may obtain almost any information it desires from any federal department or agency is alarming. Especially considering the authority it would have to use that information.
- The conclusory nature of the Task Force’s investigative process would allow it to be used for political cover to pass and defend unconstitutional laws. For example, the findings may be used to support a bill that unconstitutionally restricts firearm ownership or privacy rights. When such laws are challenged, “courts must accord substantial deference to the predictive judgments” of legislatures.[20] That “substantial deference”—alone concerning—and the Task Force’s findings could be relied upon to help uphold an unconstitutional law.
- The intent to encourage and facilitate the sharing of information between governments and “private entities with protective or public safety responsibilities” raises myriad privacy and surveillance concerns—especially if it includes companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, which have demonstrated hostility towards certain political viewpoints.
- The extraordinary vagueness of the bill exacerbates the preceding concerns, since it fails to impose clear limitations on the Task Force.
Our View
The Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act of 2019 is an attempt to normalize domestic surveillance and punish Americans for things they might do in the hollow name of national security. There is little to no oversight over how the Task Force may go about achieving its goals. In fact, “[a]ny member of the Task Force may propose to develop or change existing operating rules and procedures of the Task Force consistent with the functions of the Task Force”[21] with a majority vote.
Given how vaguely the TAPS Act defines terms, the efforts of this organization could result in the federal government using private entities to collect personal information on private citizens.
If passed, the entities involved will provide legal cover for any number of unconstitutional regulations or prohibitions that may follow due to the courts’ doctrine of legislative deference.
The TAPS Act and its policies are a distraction. A “smoke show” for furthering the federal government’s interest in breaching both the structure of dual federalism and the private affairs of Americans, all in the hollow name of “national security.” As such, the TAPS Act should be resolutely rejected.
See more policy briefs from the Firearms Policy Coalition about the TAPS Act and other pending gun control proposals here.
Call your reps and stop this.
Do you mean your Representatives listen to you?
I live in Florida where the Representatives only represent themselves! They not only do not listen, they won’t even reply to your emails if you are writing about the Second Amendment or guns. Also, I dont think other states, (excluding commie NY and CA). My representatives including all Senate are OATH BREAKERS! First Senator Scott is the traitor, treasonist that signed and forced upon American citizens the Illegal Red Flag Laws in Florida. You know the illegal law that slaughters your 1st, 2nd, 4th, 6th, 14th and other Constitutional Amendments & rights.
Senator Rubio filed a similar bill in Washington I believe was SB7 which was the same illegal Red Flag Law Nationwide.
Representatives Kilmer is a Democrat and strictly a enemy of the 2nd. Amendment.
So contacting my representatives is called, “An Effort in Feutility” ! But it is a great suggestion if you HAVE representatives that listen to you! In places like Florida you’ll do better voting AGAINST every politician in office. None of my representatives are getting our votes !!!!!!!!
Yeah I work for the state government in the capital of FL, and thought that might give me an “in” to actually get somewhere with our so-called “representatives”. Needless to say after many phone calls and several formal appointment requests, they wouldn’t even see me. Rubio is not a Republican and he certainly doesn’t give a $#!T about our Second Amendment rights nor his conservative constituents.
Rubio proved his stripes shortly after his arrival in Washington D.C. when he fell in with the so called “Gang of Eight” pushing for amnesty for illegals… Not a Conservative by any means but niether is Scott although he is slightly to the right of Bill Nelson….
I’m retired now, but after Joe Manchin’s reign as Governor, as a West Virginia public employee I was not allowed to contact elected officials unless they contacted me first. The rule was written in a way that it didn’t really differentiate official duties from my interests as a citizen. After he left the rule stayed on the books.
Probably not constitutional, but that’s how (now Senator) Joe Manchin rolls.
There is so much Illegal Alien Voting and the HHS has moved so many Welfare Baboons into my district that I now have a Socialist Democrat Representative.
Called her office today. Like most days, it is a socialist nightmare.
…BUT I still call.
I wonder how many countries started out Socialist but later turned Communist or Fascist?
All of them….
Socialist, communist and fascist are distinctions without a difference, especially to those subjected to such.
How many Federal, State and/or Local Laws related to the ownership, possession or use of guns are already on the books?
Now, think about this,……….how many of them are strictly enforced?
We don’t need even one more frickin law to either be partially enforced or totally ignored.
New laws are not the answer.
THE REAL AND OBVIOUS ANSWER IS TO STRICTLY ENFORCE THE ALREADY EXISTING LAWS, EVENLY ACROSS THE BOARD, WITHOUT EXCEPTION…
…and Laws that are found to be duplication’s of other already existing Gun Laws need to be done away with or re-written to give them strength and make them apply and be effective.
We didn’t elect the Congressional and Senate SCUM to simply sit around getting paid to ignore existing Laws while writing More New Laws that they have no intention of seeing enforced, but simply wrote and voted on to make it appear they were doing what they were elected to do when in fact they’ve just been sitting on their thumbs and spinning around while getting paid to do their jobs, which doesn’t include “Fact Finding Tours” to the Bahama’s, Europe or anywhere else at the tax payers expense.
They aren’t really the problem, WE ARE, for LETTING THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS CRAP FOR SO LONG AND WE NEED TO PUT AN END TO IT.
Just because this isn’t gun control doesn’t mean it’s a good alternative.
Is it just me or is this an upgrade to the PATRIOT act?
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m not convinced they don’t already have this data, they just want to legally use it.
They absolutely do, this just legitimizes it. I’m sure they watch this site, for example. Keep posting about CW2!
That’s exactly what it is. All those great data points that came to be over the last 18 years that the PA didn’t account for or didnt exist have to be rolled into the surveillance state and this is their chance. Add in the new stuff and plug up any holes made apparent over two decades of police stating.
Don’t leave home without your cellular ankle bracelet or they’ll surely stop and question you.
Yes, this is basically an extension of the patriot act.
And we can thank the Republican controlled Congress for passing the bill and Republican president George W. Bush for signing the patriot act into law, thus enabling all this data collection and domestic surveillance.
And I remember the enthusiastic chorus of support from right wing conservative’s, with their panties in a wad about all those evil Islamic terrorists, clamoring for the passage of the patriot act, telling us how safe we would now be.
When, in reality, the GOP was laying the groundwork for a domestic surveillance state.
The left wing has done such a bang-up job fighting back against that surveillance state………..not.
Obama expanded all that shit. Even now they’re totally on board with this expansion and Red Flag atrocities. Neither left nor right will ever work to bolster liberty with any consistency. Anyone over the age of 10 should see that.
The Republicans create the toolkit, the Democrats weaponize it. Wash, rinse, repeat.
I’m so..incredibly…tired of all this shit.
It will be devastating your rights like the Patriot Act.
This is going from ” see something, say something ” to the thought police doing the ” show me the man and I will find a crime “.
I expect Dan Crenshaw to support all kinds of anti 2A stuff….he is friendly with the Moms Demand crowd, which means he is no friend to the 2A
Something better? We’ve known for more than twenty years that a crazy with a gun is danerous. Yet, we avoid identifying and preventing crazies from getting guns. The freak in Florida was turned in to the FBI at least once, and twice if you believe the stories. But, nothing was done about him. The obvious conclusion is, no one WANTED to do anything about him, until he had served his purpose. That purpose, of course, was to help change public opinion.
Crazies will always exist in society no matter what surveillance or mental health programs are employed by the government. A better option (and in my opinion, the best option) is for individuals within society to arm themselves. Crazies are less inclined to attack if they know their target it hard.
“Crazies are less inclined to attack if they know their target it hard.”
Do you really believe that ‘crazies’ consider the consequences of their actions before they commit their atrocities?
The schmuck in Walmart was wearing earmuffs, fcs! Apparently, he was concerned about hearing damage.
consequences – no
Do some want to live through it – yes (hence the use of body armor by some)
If their intent it to inflict pain, they will choose the easiest place to do the most damage. Hard targets simply provide less opportunity.
obviously they mostly do, because they sure are consistent in choosing places where everyone is disarmed by fiat or by defacto.
WHICH freak in Florida? The freak that shot up the Pulse night club who was interviewed by the FBI and deemed not a threat or the freak school shooter that everyone from the FBI down to the local school hall monitor was aware of and basically ignored after interviewers deemed him not a “serious” threat… Why is it that 90% of the mass killers in this country have been either interviewed by the FBI or on their ‘”radar” including the assholes that bombed the Boston Marathon and deemed “not a threat” just before they go out and kill a shitload of people, but they can devote (waste) two fucking years of investigations into a bullshit attempt to overthrow the duly elected President of the United States… TAPS is bullshit, it is warrantless surveilance it’s the domestic version of the FISA Court without the foreign requirement and the court part… 1984 will be complete if this passes… but what do I know, I’m just another conspiracy nut…
DITTO !!!!!
This will be the Destruction of our Republic, this act gives the Fed totalitarian power to keep an eye on all people except those in power and the rich. it will not do anything other than brand innocent people, this will be like the Salem witch trials and get a lot of people placed in concentration camps run by the Godless Amoral Democrats!
Well, you do know that all the concentration camps and detention facilities are currently being run by the godly amoral Trump Republicans?
Most of the detention facilities are run by GEO Corp., who will make more money as more people are incarcerated. Thus, the billionaires will increase their profits as more and more people are ‘detained’.
Yes, yes how dare those dastardly federal employees of the federal government arrest criminal illegal aliens and lock them up? It is outrageous that a godly amoral president like Donald Trump who swore an oath to faithfully execute the laws of this nation does nothing to stop them!
Fusion center
“A fusion center is an intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination state or major urban area center, which is owned by state, local, and territorial law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security entities, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.”
This not something new, this is the tool to spy on and “deal with” their enemies. Which ever side is in control at the moment.
Think about that for a while.
“(In other words: wholesale domestic surveillance and callous disregard of the Fourth Amendment.)” Anyone who uses facebook, twitter, snpcht, google etc has already forfieted their 4th amendment rights, (read ALL of the fine print aka terms of service) if you have a “smartphone, tv, laptop w/camera, smart doorbell/camera, or any of those “personal assisstant” devices that turn on your tv or order your amazon stuff for you, you are already being “spied” on and your information is in hundreds if not thousands of databases around the world……
“(The task force could consider many typical behaviors of gun-owners, or other groups, to be indicative of a capability to carry out violence. Common, lawful practices like: purchasing ammunition in bulk to get a lower price, buying more than one handgun in a month,)” That is the only way I purchase ammo AND I have been known to pick up a couple of handguns a rifle or two a shotgun and several large capacity magazines in a months time so I suppose all that combined with my life membership in the NRA a known terrorist organization (at least in San Francisco) and my being a USMC “trained killer” is going to have them knocking on my door before the ink is dry on the POTUS signature…. Oh WTF it’s been a good run..
They won’t be knocking with a resume like that.
Nope, ya know all that kool kop gear the DOD has been pushing out to LE for the past dozen or more years? You fit the profile to use some of it in a 4 AM raid, so they can feel just like the real operators. “One in custody as local SWAT team raids terrorist safe house and hauls off a massive arsenal – News at 11!”
Breathless, gasping infobabe/empty suit: “Why, he had over one-THOUSAND rounds of something called “twenty-two long rifle,” a high velocity cartridge that is frequently used in fully semi-automatic guns designed to KILL.”
(“One in custody as local SWAT team raids terrorist safe house and hauls off a massive arsenal – News at 11!”) uhmmmmm, that’s not exactly how the news flash will go, there will be a lot of talk about numbers of dead and wounded hundreds of shots fired, yeah massive arsenal, thousands of rounds blah, blah… But not so much ANY one in custody..
No I suppose not but the motion cameras and perimiter alarm will knock for them, either way the end result will be the same….
I’ll have your 6 Marine! Never lose hope and plan to anillate those that come fo your freedom !!!
Doubling the sentences for crimes such as straw man purchases and tacking on the crime committed by the recipient would make some wives and girlfriends think twice, especially if the sentences are consecutive with no parole. The same for felon in possession. We should insist that DOJ establish a section just to prosecute federal gun crimes, no plea bargains, and no parole. If people want to screw with our rights and the enjoyment thereof they should pay a real price.
Charge the straw purchasers as accomplices for crimes committed with the guns since they enabled the crimes. If you knowingly give a gun to a prohibited person who uses it in a murder, you should face murder charges too. Support personnel, like getaway drivers at a bank robbery, get charged with the bank robbery even though they didn’t go inside.
This bill is an end run. Who needs universal background checks, or red flag laws, when you have an all purpose domestic spying program at your fingertips.
10-4 to that.
Surprise Surprise, The great Patriot and National Hero Edward Snowden already revealed this long ago, its just that this bill will now let the deep state come out in the open and brazenly admit to what they have already been doing for years.
Vlad with the biplane got something right. Finally.
Good Job! Now attempt to build upon that foundation. Sanity beckons. Its pretty nice over here, despite the ridiculous trolls and their clown shoes…
That must be fake Vlad, real Vlad would be cheering and praising the swamp dwellers as national heroes… Real Vlad is so far away from sanity and common sense that just the slightest bit of sunlight can cause irreparable harm to its entire genome…
How many times do I have to tell you people! I can get Clintoncided for braking the terms of my contract. I am not allowed to post anything that is true or makes any sense whatsoever. Please stop it!
– The Real True Vlad Tepes
“The bill’s author also conveniently omitted a definition of “private entities with protective or public safety responsibilities.” As a result, this bill may allow “fusion center[s]”[16] and other law enforcement entities to collect information on individuals, or more succinctly stated: domestic surveillance.”
Imagine if the ‘Joyce Foundation’ or one of Bloomberg’s little groups like the ‘mad mommies’ volunteers to ‘help’ with the implementation of that turd.
OK, it’s a non-starter. We hope.
How do it’s chances currently look?
It’s becoming more and more apparent that the justice department recently abused FISA courts to unlawfully spy on US citizens. And now the government wants to give itself even more power to spy, with even less oversight?
Well, of course they do. The question is, are we, as a nation, window licking stupid enough to give it to them?
You wont be giving this government anything as they take what they want and Americans today aren’t willing to March on Washington and kick their asses like Americans prior to 1945 would. It pretty well tells the people to take care of corrupt government and we are not doing a good job of that.
When this first came up, we were told it was benign because it was only about proposing ideas, training people about how to do threat assessments; training is not gun control. Those of us who expressed concern were patted on the head and told to breathe deep, and take a nap, because it was a nothing burger designed to be a bone to gun grabbers so they wouldn’t do something more dangerous.
On the anniversary of 911 it seems oddly prescient to post this. The Muslims won. Show us your paper’s comrade…for the children. Land of the free and home of the brave my azz😫
STOP THIS HERE! See Links!
Calls Matter Someone has to answer
or hear voice mails & ur msg & its tracked
how many people call about issues!
Contact Congress 202-225-3121
https://gunowners.org/alert082119/
https://gunowners.org/alert090419/
The one sentence you never want to hear is : I’m from the government & I’m hear to help you : , scaaarrry huh???
Sounds like PATRIOT ACT 2 to me. An end run around our constitutional protections and an authorization to do domestic spying into our activities at a very personal level. Sounds like 1984 is coming! I recall that back in the mid-1970’s, the military intelligence organizations got their balls hammered by Congress for collecting and maintaining information files on civilians (leftist and right-wing extremists and others of that ilk), and the PRIVACY ACT was the upshot. Now they want to incorporate civilian social media companies into the mix – it does not sound good. To me, this latest congressional bill is just a knee-jerk reaction to DO SOMETHING and is not well thought out – there are always unintended consequences! Contact your congresscritter and senators and demand that they vote against this travesty.
End run. Good way of putting treason as you are spot on. The government is testing us right now to see how much we’ll take. The Patriot Act is so unconstitutional that it stinks. Do you see any representative throwing fits about this abortion law on our behalf? The Red Flag Law and now this new Tap law is a slaughter of our rights.
A modern Republican is about as conservative as an early 2000’s Democrat.
Yes, the difference is, the Democrats never claimed to be conservative.
The Republicans have claimed to be conservative, all while passing domestic surveillance laws such as the patriot act.
It seems there’s a word for that.
I remember when Trump won the election and all the dumbocraps couldn’t believe we beat them. They still dont know how or why we won. And its evident to me the Republicans including the president doesn’t know either.
I have also written the president about his promises to protect the Second Amendment. His EXACT words “I will never let you down” BULL”. The president will not reply to my emails regarding the unconstitutional and illegal Red Flag Laws. He also appointed Betsy Devoe as head of education and had her do a study on how to protect our schools. She has recommended passing Red Flag Laws and The President agreed with her!
So it doesn’t matter what the party is they are ALL destroying our rights one at a time.
These are the times Thomas Jefferson spoke of when he said from time to time the Republic needs to be cleaned out !!!!! The cleaning is We the People’s job and we aren’t doing worth a damn !
RINOs, traitors, and squishes, oh my.
TAPS Act translated: turn America into a police state that Big Brother would envy, that Stalin would envy, That Mao would envy, that Castro would envy, that Kim Jong Un would envy!
No thank you. I prefer America to stay free, which is why I swore an oath “to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
Haven’t any politicians in either party read the Constitution or Declaration of Independence?
Haven’t they read 1984?
It should be renamed the Minority Report Act or the Pre-Crime Prevention Act (or we could cut to the chase and call it the Unconstitutional Anti-Liberty Act).
This legislation is the latest in a long string of efforts to empower states and fedzilla to “neutralize” firearm owners. In other words this is the latest attempt to empower governments to “neutralize” their political enemies. No surprise there.
What DOES surprise me: people who support this tactic never seem to understand that government could use that very same apparatus to “neutralize” them.
Saying it another way: in the 1930s and 1940s the German populace should have violently opposed the German government’s effort to haul away Jews because that very same government could start hauling away Germans that were “too dumb” or who were not productive enough … oh, wait, the German government actually started doing that as well! (Of course, even then, the German populace still did not oppose their government because the “dumb” and “handicapped” German people were just a tiny percentage of the entire population.)
Hmm. I think I see a pattern here throughout World History. That pattern: the Ruling Class declares a demographic to be significantly inferior or evil and therefore deserving exploitation and/or elimination.
Any legislation which enables our federal or state governments to do the same must never become law.
“What DOES surprise me: people who support this tactic never seem to understand that government could use that very same apparatus to “neutralize” them.”
This is dangerous because it is so loosely defined and left open for interpretation, that it can be ‘weaponized’ by a future administration that hates guns and gun owners…
This is a social credit score system for Americans.
IMHO, the TAPS act eliminates the need for the charade of parallel construction.
The long game favors tyranny. Tick-tock.
Early Detection, Threat Assesment, Planned Intervention are exactly what is needed and what everyone should be supporting. If anyone sees a problem in this specific bill, you should loudly say how to fix it.
These techniques are working. They work in schools where I live. They work to protect the President.
Imagine a hard left administration with a tool like this.
Yeah that’s sobering isn’t it?
No, this method has existed for years. It is what the Secret Service does every day. It works.
Again, instead of trying to block a concept that already works, be specific about what is wrong with a bill and how to fix it.
The attack on America on September 11 was a success because the passengers were disarmed, if everyone on board had a gun, 9/11 could not have happened.
Avoid the “red flag” nonsense. It will be used later to declare anyone who owns a gun “a danger to society”, ( the fact you want a gun proves you are mentally ill )
If this passes a big chunk of the population will be considered suspect. Once a person moves up on their list to a special category they’re never getting off. The first clue they’re a target will be when the front door gets kicked open.
Fusion center
“A fusion center is an intelligence gathering, analysis and dissemination state or major urban area center, which is owned by state, local, and territorial law enforcement and Department of Homeland Security entities, many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice.”
This not something new, this is the tool to spy on and “deal with” their enemies. Which ever side is in control at the moment.
Think about that for a while.
“many of which were jointly created between 2003 and 2007 under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice“
Isn’t it interesting that the Republicans created these freedom-stealing entities between 2003 and 2007 and yet Obama and a democrat controlled Congress did not take our guns or mass incarcerate conservatives and tea partiers?
Everyone here keeps saying the socialists are just waiting for a chance to take over, it looks like they missed their best chance between 2008 and 10 when the Democrats had a majority in Congress and held the White House.
In fact, the Democrats authorized CCW holders to carry firearms on hundreds of thousands of acres of federal land, what have the Republicans done for POTG? I mean, other than ban bump stocks and discussed removing due process.
Fascinating.
REJECT THE DAM SHIT LEAVE OUR 2 AMENDMENT ALONE THE LAST 8 YEARS IS WHERE ALL THIS SHIT HAS CAME FROM UP TILL THEN THERE WAS NO PROBLEM. YOU NEED TO WORK ON THE EVILNESS OF THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE THERE IS ENOUGH OF IT WALKING AROUND SICK EVIL PEOPLE PULL THE TRIGGERS GUNS DON’T PULL TRIGGERS YOU F##KING MORONS. YOUR IDIOT’S PERIOD!!!!!
TAPS and those pushing it are as once said TURN-COATS, traitors to their OATH of office and traitors to all the people they serve.
THIS SOUNDS MORE LIKE “BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU’ THAN A TRUE CONCERTED EFFORT TO STOP PEOPLE WITH MENTAL PROBLEMS THAT COULD LEAD TO THE DEATHS OF OTHER PEOPLE. THE METHOD OR TOOLS THEY USE IS NOT IMPORTANT AS THEIR MENTAL STATE BECAUSE THIS IS THE MAIN PROBLEM.
TAPS puts more power into government hands but government failure enabled the shootings in Parkland, Sutherland Springs and the Charleston church, just to name 3.
The proponents of this law need to explain how TAPS would have stopped past shootings.
When an entity fails in doing its job you reduce their authority. Why when it comes to government are we doing the exact opposite?
All I’M reading is
“….Remove 2A…”
“…Remove even more 2A…”
“…Finish removing 2A…”
Does that sum it up?
“All I’M reading is
“….Remove 2A…”
“…Remove even more 2A…”
“…Finish removing 2A…”
Does that sum it up?”
Not quite….
Do it all without bothering to change the constitution.
Sorta sounds like Minority Report. Where the police arrest you before you commit the crime. Hell, for sure nothing could go wrong with such a brilliant idea, huh?
I’ve sent e mails to my reps Rubio and Scott outlining my concerns and that the potential for abuse was astronomical. Especially our constitutional and civil rights being stripped away. They haven’t responded.
The left wing progressive liberal socialists have an agenda to turn us into a socialist country and they’re giving them everything they’re after. Just look at what they’re doing to free speech. Banning words, attacking anyone who has another view point, going after conservative news personalities, altering what’s being taught in schools, just to name a few things.
Many of our leaders are being duped. They’re under the misguided idea that caving to the socialists will bring harmony, safety and security.
Hi, its good piece of writing regarding media print, we all be aware
of media is a enormous source of facts.
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