Lux Lucet

This has been a rather eventful week in the news. Of particular interest is the ongoing attempt by President Obama and others of his ilk to spin the recent shootings in San Bernardino to advance both the police state at home and the warfare state abroad.

Within hours of the outrage, Obama was on television reiterating his attack on the Second Amendment rights of Americans to own and use firearms. He called for “common sense” gun laws that would prohibit those on the federal governments “no fly list” from purchasing a gun.

During his 12/6 White House Address to the Nation, Obama repeated the call saying, “To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on the no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security.” This is simply amazing. You see, the argument against Obama’s proposal is so simple and basic that even a Harvard-trained Constitutional lawyer should be able to understand it. The no-fly list itself is the problem. No one seems to understand how a person gets on it, and having one’s name removed can require a lawsuit. As Time reports,

The problem lies with the terrorist watch lists themselves, which are both secret and routinely updated without the typical due process given to those who are accused of breaking the law, such as court proceedings. Without a trial, the government can add anyone to watch lists who it believes may be a threat to national security – and exactly how the government defines such a threat isn’t even public knowledge.

“The government doesn’t release its criteria,” says Elizabeth Goitein, a co-director of the Liberty & National Security Program at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. “It’s really a black box.”

Due process is the bane of tyrants and a shield to the people. Remove it and the rule of law dies. Does Obama understand this? Of course he does. Common sense tells you he simply has no regard for the Constitution.

Worth noting too is that while American citizens are constantly harangued about the alleged common sense need for them to sacrifice their Constitutional liberties for security, the shoe is never put on the other foot. Federal officials from the president on down never stop to consider that their aggressive foreign policy of empire building and preventive war may be a major reason for the jihadist attacks on the US. Not only does Obama show no interest in understanding the simple “common sense” notion that killing people and occupying their countries creates resentment among the population, some of whom become militants, but every time an attack occurs he and others engage in a perverse contest to see who can promise to invade the more nations than the other guy.

Americans in general don’t like to think about foreign policy. Most people have a hard time seeing how events on the other side of the globe have any effect on their day to day lives. But if we can take one lesson from 9/11, it is that our foreign policy has very practical consequences here at home. There is a close connection between the policies our federal government pursues abroad and the laws Americans live under in the course of the everyday lives. The constant unconstitutional surveillance carried out by federal agencies such as the NSA and attacks by the president on Second Amendment are just two examples of the evil fruit of the aggressive and immoral foreign policy carried out by the federal government in the name of the American people. The time is now to put a stop to it. What could possibly be the argument against ending the wars? After all, it’s just common sense.