Vox Writer: President Should Unilaterally Ban Everyone From Buying Guns

Vox writer Dylan Matthews said on Twitter Thursday that he believed the president should be able to unilaterally ban all Americans from purchasing guns.

One of the arguments against gun control advocates’ proposal to ban those on federal terror watch lists from buying guns is that there is that it would deprive Americans of their rights without a trial, and that the government doesn’t have to explain why a given person was added to the list. But Matthews argued that was more of a feature than a bug.

This is not Dems’ sales pitch but I’m totally down with letting the prez unilaterally ban people (hopefully everyone!) from buying guns

— Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) June 16, 2016

Matthews tweet naturally attracted the ire of conservatives on Twitter, many of whom pointed out that he might feel differently about unilateral deprival of rights if Donald Trump was the one doing it.

So when President Trump puts you on a list, @dylanmatt, he can remove whatever constitutional rights he pleases?

— Mr. ✘ (@GlomarResponder) June 16, 2016

This is kind of a creepy totalitarian view, @dylanmatt. And I don’t think you’d consider that characterization a criticism.

— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) June 16, 2016

@dylanmatt I hope you’re ok with that kind of presidential power of Trump wins.

— EducatédHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) June 16, 2016

Matthews did cede some ground, when fellow liberal Glenn Greenwald pointed out that Muslim-Americans would be most affected.

@ggreenwald that’s a completely fair concern

— Dylan Matthews (@dylanmatt) June 16, 2016

[Image via screengrab]
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