Roy Cooper has been the Attorney General of North Carolina for the last 15 plus years. You'd think that in that time he'd have learned a little bit about protecting civil liberties. While he refused to sign on to the multi-state attorney general amicus brief in the Heller case, he did sign on to the one for McDonald v. Chicago. Cooper also intervened in the Duke lacrosse case which ultimately dismissed all the (false) charges against the three Duke University lacrosse players.
Now that Cooper, a Democrat, is running for governor he is going all out to look tough on crime and secure the votes of those who are feeling insecure during these times of Islamofascist terrorist attacks. To that end, he has proposed that the North Carolina General Assembly preempt Congress and prohibit those in the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database from purchasing firearms. It should be noted that neither of the San Bernadino killers was on the list.
Attorney General Roy Cooper on Monday called on state lawmakers to approve legislation that would prevent anyone being monitored by the FBI as a terror suspect from purchasing firearms in North Carolina.Hasan Harnett, Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, immediately fired back at Cooper.
"Stopping terror suspects from getting weapons that could harm our state and its people makes common sense," Cooper said in a statement. "Even if Washington won't act, we can."
In the wake of last week's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., the U.S. Senate voted down a measure that would have curtailed the gun rights of people on the government's no-fly list and other FBI databases of terror suspects.
“It’s shameful that Roy Cooper has chosen once again to side with Washington, D.C. and follow President Obama’s lead, using the recent terrorist attack as a bait-and-switch to push for more gun control in North Carolina. Considering anyone can be placed on the terror watch list for any number of reasons arbitrarily, it is equally as scary that our state’s elected attorney general and top law enforcement officer is for stripping our citizens of their constitutional rights and denying them due process in order to score points with the far-left elements of his party.”Roy Cooper has finally come out of the closet on gun control. For years he has been rather wishy-washy on gun rights. I'm actually glad that he has decided to ally himself with the national Democrat Party on gun control issues. Given that Michael Bloomberg spent millions to make sure the state kept it racist Jim Crow-era pistol purchase permit system, I would fully expect Cooper to get Bloomberg's monetary support.
Grass Roots North Carolina is not taking Cooper's proposal lying down. They have issued an alert and are asking people to both email and call Cooper regarding his proposal. They refer to it as "modern-day McCarthyism". I would suggest everyone who is reading this to cut and paste the message and flood "No Fly" Roy's mailbox.
NC's Attorney General to Bring Modern Day McCarthyism to North Carolina
Fret not that tens of thousands of lawful citizens - including Senator Ted Kennedy - have been denied airline transportation thanks to misidentification. Never mind the Terrorist Watch List is so inaccurate it includes 72 Department of Homeland Security employees. Forget that stringent gun control in both France and California failed to stop terrorists from getting weapons. And don't bother to read the Huff Post's "7 Ways You (Yes, You) Could End Up On A Terrorist Watch List".
Why not? Because all that is trivial compared to having the state's top cop and would-be governor proposing to flout the Constitution by denying you due process under both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. You have no "right" to fly, but as affirmed by the Supreme Court in DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago, you definitely have a right to keep and bear arms.
America has traveled this road before, and the landscape wasn't pretty. Widespread violations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties in the late 1950s against "subversives" on secret blacklists compiled by the FBI were so shockingly un-American, they earned their own moniker: McCarthyism.
Where will Cooper's modern McCarthyism end? Once government is free to deny a fundamental, enumerated Constitutional right for merely being included on a secret list, are our other cherished freedoms far behind? Free speech? Freedom of religion? History demonstrates that when governments are free to use the full powers of the state against those on secret lists, the first casualty is liberty.
Due process - notice, an opportunity to be heard, the right to face one's accuser - has been America's bulwark against tyranny since the Founders penned the Constitution.
IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED!
- EMAIL ATTORNEY GENERAL ROY COOPER. Use this contact form on the NC DOJ website:
http://ncdoj.com/Home/ContactNCDOJ.aspx
and use the copy/paste message provided below, under 'Deliver This Message.'- PHONE ROY COOPER at this number: (919) 716-6400
Tell him that you've read about his proposed scheme to suspend the Second Amendment rights of North Carolinians using the arbitrary and secret "Terrorist Watch List." This would suspend the rights of certain citizens absent any proper due process. Suppressing the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments is clearly illegal, and would be an example of modern day McCarthyism. It will not be tolerated.DELIVER THIS MESSAGE
Suggested Subject: "'Watch List:' No McCarthyism in North Carolina!"Dear Attorney General Cooper:I have just read of your proposal to use the "Terrorist Watch List" to deny Second Amendment rights to North Carolinians. I am absolutely mortified to hear this, and I demand that you immediately cease any effort to establish what can only be called modern day McCarthyism.
The "watch list" is an arbitrary and secret government list. Citizens who are placed on this list usually have no knowledge of the fact that they are on it, have had no hearing, and no opportunity to face their accusers. There are also numerous examples of innocent civilians being placed on this list in error. The "watch list" sidesteps due process, and denying citizens their Constitutional rights outside of proper due process is a clear violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
There is no Constitutional right to "fly commercial," but there is a Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Do not attempt to use an arbitrary and secret government list to deny human rights to this state's citizens. It would be a huge mistake.
I will be monitoring this issue through alerts from Grass Roots North Carolina.Respectfully,
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