I wonder how often the authorities DON'T catch these guys. It's incredibly -- astoundingly -- easy for would-be terrorists to amass weapons for terrorist plots in the U.S. Semi-auto assault weapons? .50-caliber rifles? No problem. Hell, as long as they purchase from private sellers, they don't even need to go through the trouble of background checks. It's just cash-and-carry, baby! America is a jihadist's jannah.
From the article:
Ulugbek Kodirov, a 22-year-old Uzbek man who moved to the United States planning to study medicine in New York, but ended up working in a suburban Alabama mall, was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison on Friday for plotting to kill President Obama on behalf of a jihadist group in Uzbekistan.
As The Associated Press reports, Mr. Kodirov’s lawyer, Lance Bell, blamed the Internet for radicalizing the young man, who moved to Alabama after giving up on a plan to get a medical degree at Columbia University because his English was not good enough. “I’m not calling him a victim,” Mr. Bell said, “but he’s a victim to a degree of social media.”
According to the signed confession in his plea agreement, which was posted online by The Birmingham News in February, the young man hatched his plot to shoot the president after being radicalized while watching jihadist videos online. He then communicated via YouTube with someone he believed to a member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
....
He was arrested exactly one year ago at a motel in Leeds, Ala., in possession of an automatic machine gun, a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight and four hand grenades provided to him by an undercover agent for the American government, posing as a jihadist sympathizer.
If he had just stuck to buying semi-auto handguns, rifles, or assault rifles, and as much ammo as he could afford, he wouldn't have actually been breaking the law. Lucky for us, he wanted a machine gun and grenades.
Don't ya love how he blames the internet for his almost-terror-spree? Haters, like terrorists and insurrectionist gun nuts, love to come together on social media. They aren't mainstream enough to find enough like-minded pals in real life.
To all you gunloons who oppose mandatory background checks and the terrorist watch list.... aren't you proud you support "2nd Amendment remedies" for terrorists?
If the people on that list are convicted of terrorism or other crimes, they are already prohibited persons and cannot legally buy a gun.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but you are not going to convince anyone that since the government recruited a terrorist, sold him a machine gun then arrested him for having the machine gun that they sold him, that I shouldn't be able to sell my neighbor a shotgun without applying to the government for permission.
No thanks. We shall not permit your silly schemes. You lose but thanks for playing.
For the same reason we don't ban "suspected terrorists" from exercising their 1st Amendment rights—because denying civil or constitutional rights to someone who has not committed a crime is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE, that's why. That is not how our legal system works, not should it be.
ReplyDeleteAs we should all know by now, being on the Terrorist Watch List (aka No Fly List) is hardly evidence that someone is actually a terror suspect. There are over a million and a half "suspected terrorists"—including former Assistant Attorney Generals with a top-secret security clearance, nuns, members of Congress, people with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, peace activists, Nelson Mandela, and other people—who will be harassed, denied the right to travel and punished for having a name similar to one used by someone who may or may not be a suspected terrorist. There's no way to get off the list (just ask this 8 year old boy, who has been patted down every time he flies since he was 2 years old).
You're trying to tell me that there are a million and a half dangerous terrorists in the country right now running around, and that instead of arresting and charging them with a crime, we should instead strip them of constitutional rights with no due process whatsoever?
Talk abut mental backflips—this is a perfect example of how your reflexive dislike of guns (or gun rights, or whatever) completely and totally clouds your thinking and prevents you from thinking about topics rationally—there is absolutely no way in hell that if the firearms issue wasn't involved that you would ever in any way support denying people their constitutional rights because they were on the Terrorist Watch List—and you'd be vocally opposing the Terrorist Watch List itself instead of advocating that it be used as a sound basis for determining who qualifies for civil and constitutional rights.
Please give me a compelling argument in favor of your "guilty until proven innocent" stance. Do you also support the denial of habeas corpus to terror suspects? Do you support Guantanamo Bay, the PATRIOT Act and the other Bush-era anti-terrorist measures that I've been opposing for the last decade?
If capitalism worked, there wouldn't be poverty.
ReplyDeleteSo?
BTW, Silly schemes were deemed to not violate the Second Amendment per McDonald-Heller.