What's more important to you, your right to a trial or your gun?

While the bed wetters among us are all outraged about supposed infringement on their Second Amendment rights I’m not hearing much from them or anyone else about a far more chilling government breach of our constitutional rights. President Obama has taken it upon himself to determine enemies of the state and sign off on the execution of American citizens without a shred of judicial oversight. This is beyond the Patriot Act which opened Americans to invasions of privacy such as national security letters to libraries and internet service providers demanding our records without our knowledge and beyond warrantless wiretaps. This is giving one man the power to snuff out the life of an American citizen anywhere in the world at any time without even a single hearing before a judge.

The gun crowd is dampening their drawers over concerns requiring background checks on every gun purchase and limiting magazines to 10 rounds somehow violates the Second Amendment that even arch-conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia thinks is a limited right. At the same time many of them are supportive of these extra-judicial killings of people who have not even killed anyone let alone another American. I’m a lot less worried about the government taking my gun away than I am being bombed by a drone; after all look how many people are denied air travel because the government put their name on the “No fly list” because their name sounds like some reputed terrorist.

Prosecute detainees or continue violating the constitution

President Obama is making another attempt to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and stop the farce of military commissions. The prison holds nearly 800 prisoners and only a few have even been charged with a crime. Of all the detainees that have been held at Guantanamo Bay only 3 have ever been convicted of any crime while in the Federal court system at least 195 terrorists have been convicted since 2001. Federal courts have been much more effective in convicting terrorists than military commissions.

Holding a detainee at Guantanamo Bay costs about $15,000 per month while prisoners in a Federal penitentiary cost about $2,000 per month. That makes the Federal penitentiary system over 7 times more cost efficient. Our Federal supermax prisons hold the worst criminals in the country safely and can do the same with terrorists. It’s an insult to our intelligence when Republicans use fear-mongering claims that terrorists will escape and kill us in our beds.

Let’s face it the only real reason that these people are held in Guantanamo Bay is so that our government can avoid legal requirements; such as having to appear in court to show cause for continued detention of the prisoner. The right to a speedy trial and the right to confront the accuser would also be imposed if the detainees were held on undisputed American soil. This isn’t about anything more than skirting our constitutionally guaranteed rights and we should all be very afraid of that.