Why the NRA and ACLU take same side of 'no fly' gun debate
With the Democrats鈥� sit-in on the House floor, gun-control debates among lawmakers may have reached new heights of polarization. But on at least one of the proposed policies, advocacy groups typically at odds with one another are finding themselves on common ground.
The proposals in question would bar gun sales to those appearing on a 鈥渘o-fly list鈥� 鈥� a secret list of people prohibited from flying on airplanes in the United States. Twice this past week, the American Civil Liberties Union sent letters to the Senate three bills using no-fly lists as a basis for gun restrictions. The group cites 鈥渢he lack of adequate due process safeguards鈥� as a chief basis for its opposition.
The National Rifle Association also has raised due-process concerns about the bills.
鈥淲e鈥檙e not working together with the NRA,鈥� says ACLU deputy director Chris Landers, 鈥渂ut we鈥檙e in some places making similar arguments.鈥�
鈥淎n important place we differ is that the ACLU does believe that there are ways that a government can regulate guns that are not going to raise due-process or equal-protection problems,鈥� said Mr. Landers. 鈥淩elying on watch lists, though, is not one of those ways.鈥�
Guns-rights advocates are staking their opposition on similar grounds.
鈥淭his is an issue where it鈥檚 not just law-abiding Americans being denied their Second Amendment rights, it鈥檚 Fifth Amendment [due process] rights, too,鈥� says NRA public affairs director Jennifer Baker.聽
The group doesn't take a position on no-fly lists more generally. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a single-issue organization,鈥� says Ms. Baker, 鈥渟o our mission is to protect and defend the Second Amendment.鈥�
The right to bear arms, she added, 鈥渋s enshrined in the Constitution. Flying on a plane is not the same as a Second Amendment right.鈥�
Nor does the NRA oppose every gun-control bill that uses the no-fly list. It backed a Republican-sponsored version that would have notified the US attorney general鈥檚 office any time someone on a no-fly list 鈥� or a much larger terrorism watch database 鈥� tried to buy a gun. But to block the sale, the office would be required to respond within 72 hours of the notification, with proof that the potential buyer has ties to terrorism.
Other conservative groups, and to no-fly list gun laws. And in an interview on CNN on Thursday morning, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republicans in the chamber refused to consider new legislation that would 鈥渢ake away a citizens鈥� due process rights.鈥�
Even after deploying an unusual series of tactics in the House this week, including a failed last-minute attempt to tack an amendment on an annual appropriations bill, Democrats weren鈥檛 able to wrangle a vote on new gun-control measures. On Thursday afternoon, they announced they would bring an end to their sit-in, with Republican leaders having declared the chamber in recess.
Rep. John Lewis (D) of Georgia, the civil rights era icon who led this week's sit-in for gun-control, ended up on an airport screening list in 2004, 聽in the space of a single year. His office did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2014, Representative Lewis also joined 20 House Democrats in to the Department of Homeland Security expressing concern that the department was still not providing 鈥渆ffective means of redress for unfair or incorrect designations鈥� on federal watch lists.聽
On Thursday, Lewis 聽on gun control when legislators returned on July 5.
"We are going to win," he said. "The fight is not over.鈥�
