4th Amendment vs. 2nd Amendment — meekness vs. rage

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As I listen to or read about the hue and cry over our Second Amendment rights if any new laws or restrictions on “bearing arms” are instituted, I wonder about the relative lack of concern over our Fourth Amendment rights.
On one hand, citizens rail against losing one Constitutional right — to bear arms —and on the other, they meekly submit to actions that abrogate another, unreasonable search and seizur

Constitutional amendments dealing with travel security

AMENDMENT II
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
AMENDMENT IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
How many of you have heard or actually voiced the “as long as we’re safe” mantra to explain or even endorse the very real 4th Amendment violations that have been instituted since 9-11, especially those by Homeland Security and the TSA?

Dare I surmise that many of those leading the charge against any gun regulation are right there standing meekly in line at the airport. They willingly give up their rights against unreasonable search and seizure in the misled name of safety (Note: the TSA had not apprehended one terrorist.)

TV commentator Bill Maher gives a much broader view (2nd half of video) of all our “rights” that are slipping away. Many are already gone and with nary a murmur. But our right to fly without being groped or our clothes are seen through or our intent questioned — in essence, deemed guilty until proven innocent — is such a blatant usurping of our 4th Amendment rights that it’s downright shocking that the rabid defenders of our Constitution out there — including those in Congress — not only say nothing but acquiesce to it all.
In the early 1980s, the NRA took a strong stand against criminal background checks, charging that they were an invasion of privacy. Echoing NRA executive director Wayne LaPierre’s point of view that the federal government would be punishing people if it kept a list of assault weapon purchases, former Rep. Connie Mack (FL) on a recent panel discussion hosted by Soledad O’Brien on CNN said, “I don’t believe that the federal government should be keeping these types of records on citizens.”

Applying for Trusted Travelers Program

Now let’s take a look at what a citizen has to go through to be able to bypass the security lines (unless the TSA decides to randomly pull him or her out) when they want to fly on a commercial airplane. Here’s the write-up to apply for the Trusted Traveler or Pre-Check program:

Here are the basic steps for applying:
Before a traveler can apply for a Trusted Traveler program, they must first register for a CBP Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) account.
Once registered in GOES, the traveler can move forward with the enrollment in one of the CBP eligible programs. The GOES system will provide a PASS ID number after the enrollment in a Trusted Traveler program.
Once a passenger has signed up for a Trusted Traveler program, he/she must provide their PASS ID number, associated with the Trusted Traveler account in the “Known Traveler Number” field when booking travel. The passenger’s Trusted Traveler information will be submitted along with reservation information to TSA’s Secure Flight system. Trusted Traveler program members should also remember to enter their full name, date of birth, and PASS ID exactly as it appears on their membership card.

And if they want to go so far as to apply for a Global Entry card, not only do they have to prepay $100, but also fill out a form that, according to U.S. Customs and Border Control site, will take an average time of 40 minutes to complete. Information required includes passport info, driver’s license info, address history for the past five years, employment history for the past five years, and five years of travel history, along with information on any criminal convictions.

Talk about “keeping records”

Oh, and we, the flying public, are not only meekly going along with this dissolving of our forefathers’ safety net for us, but funding an incredible bureaucracy to do it, too! While we rant and rave about the growing national debt, Homeland Security, practically wily-nily, spent hundreds of millions equipping our airports with relatively untested backscatter scanners and now, just two years later, are junking them in favor of yet another expensive and ineffective form of scanner.
Is our so-called right to bear arms so much more important than our Constitutional right to privacy, to safety from unreasonable search and seizure? Why are not more of the American people standing up and just saying “No!”?

It’s time to stop this insanity. Please refuse to go through the scanners (contrary to recent news reports, they are still in use). Please write to your representatives in Congress. No law-abiding, already-screened-through-the-terrorist-watchlist U.S. citizens should have to assume the position of surrender as they go through a scanner at the airport just to execute their right to fly.

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