A couple of GOP lawmakers warned gun owners that the federal government is spying on them and Congress has “one week to get this right” in a Thursday op-ed for right-wing outlet Breitbart.
“Federal agencies are buying your personal data,” Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Eric Burlison (R-MO) cautioned Second Amendment enthusiasts. “The data for sale includes your location history — every gun store, range, and sporting goods shop your phone went near. Your financial records — every ammo purchase.”
The two Republican members of Congress wrote that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, will spy on gun owners through “queries” and under the guise of monitoring terrorist activity.
“The government is using algorithms to write its own permission slips,” Boebert and Burlison alleged, citing a Cato Institute report. “AI tools are being used to generate the legal justifications for initiating surveillance.”
The Republican duo called on Congress to bring forward a bill before April 30 that would require a warrant for the FBI to search private data and ban the government from buying data without a court order.
“It’s not just guns,” they urged. “The same pipeline can map your neighbor’s political and religious affiliations — private decisions that belong to them and nobody else. Protecting that privacy is not a left or right-wing position. It’s what the Fourth Amendment requires.”
President Donald Trump has actively pushed for FISA reauthorization without reforms, meaning he wants the warrantless surveillance powers extended as-is for 18 months. He signed the 10-day extension on April 18 and has pressured Republicans to fall in line.
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