State lawmakers in New York are pushing legislation that would deny handgun licenses due to a person's social media posts.
The Brooklyn Democrat who authored the bill says mass killers often provide warning sings through social media. Gun rights advocates call it a violation of both the First and Second Amendments.
“It's kind of the height of Orwellian big statism. And it's very reminiscent of the Chinese social credit system where by people are given more or fewer privileges depending on what their online presence shows about them,” says Dan Zimmerman, managing editor of The Truth About Guns.
“And it's going to stay that way until the U.S. Supreme Court reasserts the privacy of the Second Amendment as an individual right,” he says. “There's a case boiling up in the city of New York right which could very well be that case.”
If not, he says gun control advocates won't stop until everyone loses their firearm.
“They call gun safety, gun reform, whatever,” says Zimmerman. “What they ultimately mean is total civilian disarmament where John Q Public and Jane Q Public do not have firearms, only the state has firearms, and that is the only thing that will finally appease them.”