Thank you to the gentlemen at the Hawaii Firearms Coalition. For those writing testimony and or letters. I would like to hang some of my testimony here so others can use it as a go by. Not sure what its worth, but this is a topic i do know a little bit about. If there is a desire for more ill post other testimony so you guys can use it for your own. Im skeptical anyone is actually listening. But we need to do what we can.
To whom it may concern regarding SB556 which adds an additional requirement for notification of the FBI Terrorist Screening Center to the gun permit application background check.
I respectfully ask that you oppose this bill for the following reasons:
1. These checks will not result in terrorists being unable to obtain a firearm. Being on the list does not mean that you are guilty of terrorism. It means that you are under suspicion. In the United States you are innocent until proven guilty. The 14th Amendment of the constitution demands due process and equal protection under the law. Furthermore, how does the FBI intend to receive, handle, transmit, and store the information of honest, law abiding US citizens personal information that is submitted to the TSC?
2. Related to the above – the TSC is fraught with errors and dangers to civil liberties. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif was mistakenly added to the Terrorist Watch List and was not able to fly. Additional Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass was also on the terror watch list. McClintock was mistaken for an IRA terrorist and spent months getting off of the list. Ted Kennedy took months to clear his name. Imagine what it takes for a normal person – not a politician? The TSC has a very low standard for nomination. You don’t need a complete criminal case or a trial. You just have to be suspected. This is a clear violation of the 14th Amendment, especially since it infringes on the 2nd Amendment. There is not a constitutional right to fly, but there is one to keep and bear arms. Even the ACLU has stated that the TSC is a violation of basic civil liberties.
3. Submitting names to the TSC will add to the burden already borne by US law enforcement and intelligence officials. Instead of hunting for terrorists, the bill will have them hunting honest citizens. Furthermore – there is no federal law authorizing the TSC to provide this kind of screening for gun control. Unless there is federal legislation this bill will be worthless.
4. TSC screening is ineffective as a means of preventing terrorism. It by itself will not prevent terror attacks. Only a full investigation and authorized, warranted surveillance will prevent an attack before it occurs.
5. Being on the terrorist watch list did not prevent the pulse night club shooting: Omar Mateen was on the list but was taken off by the FBI. He was taken off because they did not have a viable investigation. He committed no crime until then. The Boston Bombers: One of Tsarnaev brothers who conducted the boston marathon bombing were also on the list and it did not prevent them from building a pressure cooker bomber. They did not use a gun. Nor did the terrorist in the 2016 Nice, France attack – that man used a truck, and the 2018 New York Truck Attack – did not use again. This bill will be completely ineffective in prevent terror.
6. However this bill will be effective in targeting honest, law abiding citizens. It will have a chilling effect on those who practice and enjoy their 2nd amendment rights. The chilling effect comes from the threat that their names will be sent to the FBI to go into the same database that terrorists are in. This appears to send a dark message: as gun owners can be assumed to be a part of a specific political, social, and economic stripe: be warned. This is hardly a message of Aloha in the Aloha State.
7. These gun control bills waste legislative time when the Senate needs to be focused on issues that are making Hawaii unlivable: the cost of health care, care for our elderly, the cost of housing, our gridlocked highways, homelessness, and mental health. Focus on issues that matter for the most people – not narrow bills that’s victimizes men and women who serve and law-abiding citizens who are part of your solution and not the problem. This bill will feel good to those who pass it. The majority of honest people won’t know that it even passed. The only ones who will are the ones who face criminalization for owning a firearm in hawaii.
8. I urge you to not support future bills that target law abiding citizens with infringements on their constitutional rights. Target criminals.