This is why I had reservations about these laws

They now want to take away more of the rights of those on the “terrorist watch list.” (CNN)

When people on the government’s terrorist watch list have tried to buy guns or explosives in recent years, the government has let them the vast majority of the time.

That’s the finding of a new report by the Government Accountability Office, sent to lawmakers last month and released publicly Monday.

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The GAO provided the report in response to a request from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey. The GAO said Lautenberg had requested an update to a 2005 report.

In a statement Monday, Lautenberg said, “this new report is proof positive that known and suspected terrorists are exploiting a major loophole in our law, threatening our families and our communities. This ‘terror gap’ has been open too long, and our national security demands that we shut it down.”

The statement said Lautenberg is introducing legislation that would give the U.S. attorney general “authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives to terrorists.”

There is a huge problem with this, nobody on the terrorist watch list has been found guilty of anything. At one time, Senator Edward Kennedy was on the list. The list just has names. And, if your name is similar to someone’s name on the list, you are hit with the same restrictions (this has happened to two-year-old). If we allow the government to arbitrarily restrict this Constitutionally protected right, what is to stop them from restricting others? What is to prevent them from putting all of the current (or future) administrations’ opponents, on this list? What will prevent them from adding you, your friends, and/or your family to this list? This very list is the problem. Unless it is modified such that being put on the list is the result of a court action, where the accused is allowed to defend him/herself, the terrorist watch list needs to go away.