Is it possible that the National Security Agency (NSA) is tracking all gun purchases and constructing a national registry of gun owners?
A bipartisan group of 26 senators have sent a letter to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper demanding answers to questions about whether the NSA collected bulk data on more than just phone records, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
The effort is led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and is “a significant statement from privacy advocates in the Senate,” according to the Washington Post.
In stressing that the federal government’s authority under the PATRIOT Act is broad and rife with potential for abuse, the letter asks if information gathering programs includes items such as firearm and if it could be used to construct a gun registry or violate other privacy laws.
“It can be used to collect information on credit card purchases, pharmacy records, library records, firearm sales records, financial information, and a range of other sensitive subjects,” the senators wrote.
“And the bulk collection authority could potentially be used to supersede bans on maintaining gun owner databases, or laws protecting the privacy of medical records, financial records, and records of book and movie purchases.”
As reported by the Free Beacon, civil libertarians say such surveillance is a violation of privacy, while government defends the program, saying it helped thwart several terrorist attacks and is minimally invasive.
In referencing earlier comments by Clapper that the federal government wasn’t collecting bulk data on Americans, the senators add that misleading statements and secret decisions have “prevented our constituents from evaluating the decisions that their government was making, and will unfortunately undermine trust in government more broadly,” the Post noted.
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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