A divide emerged almost immediately in the gun control crowd over the proposed “no fly, no buy” measure, which critics say not only summarily suspends rights afforded under the Constitution, but also unfairly targets certain identity groups.
Former ThinkProgress blogger Lee Fang lambasted his ex-employers Wednesday for blatant hypocrisy. Fang highlighted how anti-watchlist ThinkProgress was when it was about Muslims, then derided them for flip-flopping when watchlists became a means for curtailing gun rights.
These days, CAP/ThinkProgress says anyone against expanding use of watchlist supports helping terrorists get guns. https://t.co/iCtTZDL5Iy
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) June 22, 2016
Fang tweeted a link to a 2005 report by liberal think tank Center for American Progress (which owns ThinkProgress) in which CAP chastises no-fly lists for ethnic profiling and racial discrimination. The report goes on to rail against watchlists, citing a post-9/11 FBI list that the agency was forced to renounce because “[it] was so riddled with errors,” that unfairly target certain groups and offer no means for appeal.
Fang criticized CAP for supporting the Democrats pushing a proposal to close the so-called “terror loophole” by stripping the second amendment rights of suspected terrorists on the ‘no-fly’ list. (SEE RELATED: Rep Lewis Was Once On The No Fly List He Wants To Use To Restrict Gun Rights)
The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald blasted Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for supporting the proposal. Their attempts are “authoritarian,” he wrote. “What is a ‘potential terrorist’? Does anyone have any doubt that this will fall disproportionately on certain groups and types of people?” He also pointed out the Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, was not on a no fly list.
Fang accuses CAP and ThinkProgress of insisting that anybody who does not support an expansion of watchlists is arming terrorists. Greenwald shares Fang’s opinion and describes ThinkProgress’ support of the Feinstein bill as “appalling.”
Feinstein bill supporters are outright “lying,” Greenwald says, by saying the ban would halt terrorists’ acquisition of guns. In his view law-abiding Muslims who “will be deemed suspicious” on account of their religion or ethnicity will be targeted, and unable to defend themselves in court.
Alex Pareene of Gawker described the ‘no fly, no buy’ proposal as “a civil rights nightmare.”
“[No fly, no buy] would do little to reduce gun violence, but it would add an additional layer of surveillance and government scrutiny to a particular class of people,” he wrote. Pareene believes that the bill is prone to profiling because of a 2014 government watchlist of “680,000, forty percent of whom had no recognized terrorist group affiliation.”
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