During a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Wednesday with FBI Director James Comey, Senator Dick Durbin implied that surveillance of gun shows and firearms enthusiasts should be a national security priority. He made no mention of surveilling mosques or other Islamic organizations in order to intercept Islamic terrorist plots.
Durbin also implied that American citizens on the No-Fly List should have their constitutional protections under the Second Amendment violated without due process, echoing President Barack Obama’s focus on “gun control” while the San Bernardino Islamic terrorists still at large and following their attack.
Quoting American-born Al-Qaeda spokesman Adam Yahiye Gadahn to make his case, Durbin said, “America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”
Despite the call of many Democrats to erode the protections of the Second Amendment in response to Islamic terrorism, Americans seem to be voting differently with their feet. On Black Friday, a record number of background checks – 185,000 – were processed by the FBI. This exceeded the previous record of 178,000 on December 21, 2012. Contrary to the Democratic Party’s framing of the right to bear arms as the core of Islamic terrorism, many Americans are choosing the exercise their constitutional rights.