Beware the TAPS Act: Wholesale Domestic Surveillance of Gun Owners
May 22, 2020

By: José Niño

Gun owners have become accustomed to the typical types of gun grabs anti-gun politicians have rolled out in recent years. Assault weapons bans, universal background checks, and magazine bans are some of the usual proposals thrown our way. Second Amendment advocates have naturally built a strong opposition to these efforts and have generally made the gun control crowd break a sweat each time they try to advance such bills.

Not all infringements on the Second Amendment necessarily come from direct regulation or prohibitions on firearm ownership, however. Just look at H.R. 838, the “Threat Assessment, Prevention, and Safety Act (TAPS) Act.” The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) recently reported Texas Congressman Brian Babin (R) introduced this bill and had 47 new co-sponsors as of March 2020. It now has 180 total co-sponsors, with a bipartisan split of 90 Republicans and 90 Democrats; 38 cosponsors are needed for this bill to pass.

According to FPC, “H.R. 838 would permit levels of espionage against the American people not seen since the introduction of the Patriot Act.” Furthermore, this bill would set up a "Task Force" of 24 unelected individuals charged with managing a national strategy of surveilling private citizens under the pretense of "targeted violence through behavioral threat assessment."

Additionally, this bill would grant the Department of Homeland Security the power to issue grants to “eligible entities” to incentivize said entities to turn information over to “fusion centers,” which would involve state, federal, and local governments collaborating to maximize the “ability of such agencies to detect, prevent, investigate, apprehend, and respond to criminal or terrorist activity.”

Like any Big Brother project, the government could use the data to craft models based on behavior that would generally be viewed as innocuous. As FPC notes, this could be used to “target unwitting, innocent gun owners as potential ‘threats’” simply for partaking in the ever-so-dangerous act of purchasing multiple handguns per month. The TAPS Act would be a dream come true for any person who has the desire to make Minority Report come to life.

Tennessee Congressman Scott DesJarlais (R) withdrew his co-sponsorship of the bill after FPC was able to demonstrate how anti-freedom this bill is. It’s no exaggeration to say the modern-day managerial state is categorically against gun owners. Of the many boogiemen the Left and their false opposition on the establishment Right like to single out, gun owners are among the first. Let’s not forget that.

We should not be giving the social radicals in D.C. any more legal or bureaucratic power that they can use to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. Handing more power to the surveillance state to snoop on gun owners gives busybody politicians another avenue by which to subvert our freedoms. One way to keep the gun controllers in check is to completely scuttle the TAPS ACT before it gathers additional co-sponsors.

https://www.gunpowdermagazine....lance-of-gun-owners/

quote:

Congressman Brian Babin

https://www.gop.gov/member/brian-babin/

Apparently Congressman Babin is easily confused and needs guidance.

2236 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone 202-225-1555
Fax 202-226-0396
babin.house.gov

Sounds to me, if true, they are just forming & funding another group to do what several federal agencies are already doing... I don't get it.

Anybody that doesn't think the FBI, ATF and probably the NSA have been doing this for decades has been living in a serious bubble.

A Republican from my state did this? Shame on him! I hope he has a better Republican Challenger for this election.

flashguy

Sounds like logical sounding name for a bill that could easily be used for other nefarious purposes.

If you would like to read the bill yourself (it's pretty short) it is available at https://www.congress.gov/bill/.../house-bill/838/text

It was short, but man it made my eyes glaze over.

I did wake back up at the mention of twenty five million dollars a year for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2025, or $125,000.00 (one hundred and twenty five million dollars) and not a penny of that may be used to train any individual in the use of a firearm; or encourage or discourage the otherwise legal ownership and use of firearms.

I guess I need to get some more coffee on board and work harder at wading through sections seven and eight.

Years 2020 THROUGH 2025 is 6 years, so wouldn't it be $150 million?

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
Years 2020 THROUGH 2025 is 6 years, so wouldn't it be $150 million?

flashguy

Think about it, if it's Jan 1, 2020 to Jan 1, 2025 that is really just five years in the number of days. In another way to put it the span ends just 1 day after the end of 2024.

I'll also note that this particular bill is pretty Horrific. Those unnamed governing board members could potentially choose ANYTHING to be a trigger for monitoring. So, they could identify every one who drives a pickup truck as a potential terrorist and then throw in anyone driving an SUV as being in the same category just "to be sure".