In an article I wrote last week, we learned that Trump’s DOJ has filed a court order demanding that Apple and Google hand over the names, phone numbers, IP addresses, and other identifying data of thousands of buyers of a phone app used to calibrate rifle scopes.
Though this data grab initiated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is being defended as part of an investigation into illegal arms transactions, the constitutionally questionable court order, if granted, would give the government access to data on gun owners and others who have committed no crime.
As regular readers and listeners of the Strident Conservative know all too well, this isn’t Trump’s first foray into the use of technology to spy on Americans in the name of gun control.
In a televised event following the mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH last month, Trump appeared before the American people to push a myriad of liberty-killing “solutions” to gun violence. Included in his wish list was a demand that technology companies “develop tools to detect mass shooters before they strike.”
A few weeks after making this demand, Trump announced that he was considering a proposal to create the Health Advanced Research Projects Agency (HARPA), which would operate inside the Health and Human Services Department. HARPA would use technology such as Apple Watches, Amazon Echo, and Google Home to spy on people in their homes and collect data to identify individuals who exhibit characteristics of mental illness that could lead to violent behavior. This information would be used to seize guns using red flag laws and deny weapons purchases.
If you’re spotting a trend here, that’s because there is one.
Trump and the Swamp are now considering an idea to create an app that would be used to conduct background checks for private gun sales. The app would be connected to the National Instant Criminal Background Checks (NICS) system. If created, this app would be just the latest assault on our constitutional rights as it would give government greater access to all kinds of personal data without any due process protections.
This invasion of privacy could also bring another unpleasant consequence by creating a de facto national gun registry, a reality even RINO Sen. John Thune (R-SD) — Liberty Score® 38% (F) — admits could happen.
One big reason why the app could lead to a national gun registry is the direct connection it will have with NICS.
When Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — Liberty Score® 31% (F) — slipped the “Fix NICS Act” into the March 2018 omnibus, he secured financing to expand government’s power to deny gun ownership for “crimes” like unpaid traffic tickets, and to begin building an FBI data base of gun owners. This background check app would be a perfect tool for building such a data base.
This app, along with other “enhanced” or “universal” background check efforts, will do nothing to stop gun violence. But it will make it a lot easier for Big Brother to disarm America . . . and that’s the real goal of “sensible gun control.”
David Leach is the owner of The Strident Conservative.
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