LETTER TO THE EDITOR: New gun laws won't prevent shootings

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is an open letter to Delaware’s federal representatives While I appreciate that we have had some horrible events involving firearms recently, I don’t see where new laws will accomplish anything. Both the Pulse nightclub and San Bernardino events were terrorist attacks. The individuals in San Bernardino used illegal means to obtain their weapons. The individual in the Pulse nightclub was under FBI scrutiny and could have easily been flagged in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database due to this scrutiny. This would have denied him the ability to purchase a firearm. Plus, these individuals committed murder, which is also against the law. So, they really wouldn’t care about breaking another law to further their actions. The “No Fly” list utilized to deny air travel to suspected terrorists is an incomplete and arbitrary list. This list has many past examples of people being on it for no reason and for mistaken identity of individuals with similar names. This list does not contain full pedigree information for individuals. Because of similar names, numerous false positives have happened, some even involving children as young as 5. The arbitrary nature of the list has led to a sitting United States senator being on the list. The list is very far from perfect, and has no due process involved with an individual being listed upon it. This violates an individual’s Sixth Amendment right to face his or her accusers in a court of law. This becomes especially important now that an individual would be denied the ability to exercise his or her right under the Second Amendment to purchase a firearm. The fact that, without any due process, an individual may be prohibited from exercising their rights under the Constitution of the United States goes against everything that America has stood for over the last 239 years. By voting to allow this, you and any other elected official have failed to stand by the oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America, which you swore to upon taking office.

Chuck Mankin Smyrna