Liberal City Tags Speech as Terrorism

Only Congress can declare war, but the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is trying. Last week it voted unanimously to brand the National Rifle Association, an association with millions of American members, a “domestic terrorist organization.”

Law books have plenty to say on the definition of terrorism, but the supervisors don’t seem to have cracked one. Instead they suggest terrorism occurs anytime someone uses a “weapon” to threaten others’ personal safety or “substantial” property damage. They try to attribute this view to the U.S. Justice Department, ignoring all the other elements that distinguish terrorism from other types of armed crime, such as that criminal acts be used to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government target.

An even greater problem for the supervisors is that the NRA and its members are generally law-abiding. The resolution therefore claims that even otherwise lawful acts—such as training or providing funds—that assists or enables someone you should have known might misuse weapons constitutes “material support.” That includes the NRA’s “advocacy,” “propaganda” and “promotion” both of gun ownership and of “extremist positions.” In a word, speech. Thus the supervisors purport to classify …Read the Rest

Source:: Cato Institute