NRA joins spy lawsuit, says NSA creating gun registry
Michael Winter, USA TODAY 9:44 p.m. EDT September 4, 2013
Group joins lawsuit seeking end to spy agency's collection of Americans' phone records.
The National Rifle Association has joined a lawsuit against the federal government's sweeping surveillance program, claiming the collection of phone records and other data violates First Amendment rights and amounts to an illegal gun registry.
In supporting the American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit, the NRA on Wednesday filed a supporting brief arguing the National Security Agency's datamining "could allow identification of NRA members, supporters, potential members, and other persons with whom the NRA communicates, potentially chilling their willingness to communicate with the NRA."
The NSA's phone database would let the government track whether gun owners called the NRA, gun stores, shooting ranges or others.
The brief also says the database "could allow the government to circumvent legal protections for Americans' privacy, such as laws that guard against the registration of guns or gun owners," thereby creating an illegal "national gun registry."
The ACLU welcomed the gun group's support.
Because the ACLU has alway been seen as a Liberal based entity and the NRA a deeply Conservative one, it just caused me a minute of confusion to see them partnering on anything in the first place although now that I have thought about it for a bit it does make sense, kind of.
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows and this would certainly qualify in my book but in our struggle to rein in an out of control surveillance state I applaud them both for taking the fight right to the governments doorstep.
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