Big brother is alive and well…
3 months…only 3 months…
In Obamaland surveillance on Muslim terror suspects is considered Islamaphobia, surveillance on Black Lives Matter riots is considered racism, but surveillance on law-abiding gun owners is an important crime-fighting tool. It turns out that federal agents have been spying on customers at guns shows and tracking their movements. Why? Because the current administration is hostile to legal gun ownership and completely inept.
The Wall Street Journal originally broke this story but they have a stupid business model and put the article behind a pay wall. Thankfully there is this thing called the Internet where all information is available for free and Fox News has the scoop:
Emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in Del Mar, not far from the Mexican border.
Agents then compared that information to cars that crossed the border, hoping to find gun smugglers, according to the documents and interviews with law-enforcement officials with knowledge of the operation.
The first problem you may notice in this illegal surveillance is how insanely pointless the operation is. There was no way this would ever yield any results if you understand California gun law. The Golden State does not have the “gun show loophole” that liberals love to blame for all crimes involving a gun. Even at a gun show, a person purchasing a firearm must undergo a background check and wait 10 before taking possession of the weapon.
All gun transfers in California go through a federally licensed firearms dealer with no exceptions. Handgun purchases are limited to one every 30 days and require additional licensing. The state maintains a firearms registry. This is the last place in America where a person would try to make a straw purchase. Even less so for someone trying to buy guns, smuggle them into Mexico, and arm the drug cartels.
On top of all that, California also bans many popular handguns and all “assault rifles.” Do the feds really think there is a vibrant black market in Mexico for California-compliant weapons? Apparently so.
And despite the feds’ claim, this was completely illegal it is most certainly not. The government can’t just start spying on Americans without probable cause that a crime is being committed. The feds went fishing here and they forgot to bring bait, rods, and reels. They also didn’t pick a spot with any fish.
If the feds want to know how guns are getting from the US to Mexico they should go ask former Attorney General Eric Holder who green-lit Operation Fast and Furious. In that, the BATF let guns “go walking” from US gun stores right into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels. One of those guns was used to kill a US border patrol agent. Via: Downtrend
