The Democrats' 25-hour gun-control sit-in didn't have anything to do with gun control
Reuters/Yuri Gripas
Despite a failed 25-hour sit-in in the US House of Representatives and four failed amendments in the US Senate, the Democrats appear likely to continue fighting for gun-control legislation that has been loudly decried by critics on the right and the left as a threat to Americans' civil rights.
One major aim of the proposed legislation was to prohibit gun sales to individuals on the FBI's terror watch list.
Critics have contested that the Democrats' efforts since the Orlando shooting — which left 49 people dead in a nightclub on June 12 — amount to theatrics rather than effective legislation.
They further say that the policies would not so much reduce gun violence as disproportionately target Muslim-Americans and strip them of privacy and gun-ownership rights.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, slammed the Democrats' sit-in on Wednesday as a "political stunt" designed to fundraise and attract media attention.
While Ryan's reaction may have been expected, the position of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) may be more surprising.
The ACLU has sided with Republicans and the NRA in their opposition to so-called no fly, no buy legislation, saying that it's inconsistent with civil-liberties principles. The ACLU sent a letter to senators on Monday urging them to vote down the proposed amendments:
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/745955033355792384
Congress can pass effective gun control laws without compromising due process rights. https://t.co/DAz1x75KXw
While it looks increasingly unlikely that the "no fly, no buy" proposal will pass, Chris Anders, senior legislative counsel at the ACLU, told Business Insider that it is unlikely that Democrats will stop trying.
"It's certainly something that is a politically attractive slogan, but when it's actually carried out in the real world, you end up with a discriminatory list," said Anders. "That's not good for national security, and it's certainly not fair to the people who are on these lists."
A major issue with the "no fly, no buy" legislation is the actual watch list, said Anders, who characterized it as "overly broad and discriminatory." If lawmakers want to use the watch list as a tool in gun regulation, then it must first be made less vague and secretive, said Anders.
Gadeir Abbas, an attorney who has represented dozens of Americans who were placed on the terror watch list, told Business Insider that lawmakers have clearly drummed up public support for the "no fly, no buy" efforts for political reasons, not practical ones.
"It's easy, and more politically palatable, to target the many thousands of American Muslims that find themselves on these watch lists than to do something actually impactful with respect to gun control," he said.
https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/746021615150964736
.@Judgenap on Second Amendment: No fly, No buy sounds nice, it even rhymes! But how does one get on the list? They won't tell you. Absurd!
Further, he said, lawmakers have pushed the legislation in a way that misleads the people on what the terror watch list actually is.
Abbas said that the watch list is a "Trump-style database of Muslims" that is comprised of people who have been neither charged nor convicted of crimes. The effect of being placed on such a list as an innocent American is completely ostracizing, he said.
According to Abbas:
"When people find out that they're on a federal watch list, it feels as if the government that they pledge allegiance to has betrayed them. What other emotion could you expect a person to have who has not been charged with a crime, has not been arrested for something criminal, and whose life is upended for reasons that will never be known to them by someone who will never be identified to them?"
NOW WATCH: Watch House Democrats shout down Paul Ryan during a gun-control protest