Wednesday, June 29, 2005

What a misnomer!

Thanks to Jennifer Freeman and the hard-working Patriots at Liberty Belles for the following:

PATRIOT ACT WANTS YOUR GUNS

Section 211
ACCESS TO BUSINESS RECORDS FOR INVESTIGATIONS UNDER FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT OF 1978.

Would allow FBI access to the following records without a court order and without notification to the affected individual:

(A) The production of tangible things from a library, as defined in section 213(2) of the Library Services and Technology Act (20 U.S.C. 9122(2)).

(B) The production of tangible things from a person or entity primarily engaged in the sale, rental, or delivery of books, journals, magazines, or other similar forms of communication whether in print or digitally.

(C) The production of records related to the purchase of a firearm, as defined in section 921(a)(3) of title 18, United States Code.

(D) The production of health information, as defined in section 1171(4) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d(4)).

(E) The production of taxpayer return information, return, or return information, as defined in section 6103(b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 6103(b)).

The Patriot Act is supposed to protect the United States from terrorists. Unfortunately, we don't always know how the term "terrorist" will be defined. History shows that totalitarian governments fear an armed populace and are willing to take a pre-emptive strike at such a populace. Armed members of the populace who oppose a tyrannical government could easily be labeled as "terrorists." One can't help but wonder why this bill was named the "Patriot Act" rather than the "Anti-Terrorism Act." Let's hope the bill wasn't actually intended to apply to Patriots.

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