New Jersey: They Say That As If It Were "A Bad Thing"

Why be on a "Watch List" if you are not legitimately suspected of being  a terrorist?

N.J. already using U.S. watch lists to screen gun buyers - The CT MirrorThe CT Mirror:

The New Jersey State Police said Friday they have used the U.S. government’s terrorist watch lists to screen gun permits and purchases for two years under a law signed by Gov. Chris Christie, providing a model for how Connecticut might access the same data. “It is in effect in New Jersey,” said Capt. Stephen Jones, a spokesman for the department. “New Jersey is the first state to use that as a disqualifier for the ability to purchase firearms, and it has been that way since the time of that signing. We do use that currently. We do have access to that data.”

(Emphasis Added)

Why is that "A Bad Thing"?

Well ... for one thing, there is no oversight.  Is that  like ... if you're on a "List", you don't know and you can't find out, and you can't get your name off the "List"?

Yes, that's exactly what it is.  I don't think I'm on "A List" in any state, including the one in which I live .. but I don't know.  I do own firearms, and there was a time when I used them in competition regularly.  (That was before my eyesight got so bad that I could no longer  feel competitive.)

I still have the guns, but I don't use them.  Am I on a "Watch List"?

I don't know.  And that's the point.

 I have no way of checking, even though I have been so long retired from competition that I haven't carried a firearm across a state line for ten years.  And it worries me, that I might be on some anonymous list of potential "bad actors"   Wouldn't it seem reasonable that I could sign onto a website, irrefutably identify myself as "me", and learn whether my government is watching me?

You may think that I'm being paranoid, but some states are actively tracking firearms owners:

Just because I'm paranoid, that doesn't mean that nobody is looking over my shoulder every day.


Is this "too much" governmental oversight?

Sure, we want to know that (potential) "terrorists" are identified and tracked; that just seem reasonable.

The question is ... who defines an individual as a "terrorist" ... or a potential terrorist?