Hayden on the left with the WSJ’s John Bussey. (Photo: WSJ)
When it comes to stopping terrorist attacks and active shooter situations, former NSA Director Michael Hayden indicated that policies further restricting Second Amendment rights might be worth pursuing.
On Wednesday, Hayden was at the Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Cybersecurity” breakfast in New York. Before attendees, Hayden argued that in terms of surveillance there’s little else that can be done to monitor for potential threats.
“We could probably do more things that’ll squeeze your privacy a bit, to give us a marginally higher probability that we could have caught the Orlando guy prior to the attack,” said Hayden, referring to the Pulse Nightclub shooter.
Hayden continued, “there’s not much more left…that’s gonna buy you a lot more prediction, given the kinds of attacks,” like Orlando, which are like “spontaneous combustion.”
Since the Fourth Amendment stands in the way of additional surveillance measures, Hayden said it may be time to focus on expanding regulations on one’s right to keep and bear arms.
“Why don’t we begin to wonder about making the guy less efficient when he actually conducts the event, that I told you, I’m not probably going to get much more capable of detecting in the first place,” said Hayden, who also served as director of the CIA.
“Maybe the counterterrorism discussion is about, some people out there shouldn’t be able to buy any guns, and there might be some guns out there that nobody should be able to buy,” he added.
Hayden didn’t come out and say it, but it’s easy to read between the lines. He is suggesting that Congress should pass No-Fly, No-Buy legislation, universal background check legislation as well as a ban on black rifles.
SEE ALSO: Top Five Reasons to Oppose No-Fly, No-Buy Legislation
When it comes to mass shootings and terrorist attacks they are more often than not carefully planned for weeks, even months in advance. Why all the planning? Well, in addition to looking for soft targets, these determined killers search for ways to break the law without getting caught.
So, for example, if they are already a prohibited person who can’t purchase a firearm from an FFL, they may hatch a plan to steal one from a family member, buy one on the black market or have a friend who is not a prohibited purchaser (a straw buyer) obtain one for them. All methods are obviously against the law, but through careful planning they are able to get their hands on weapons while flying under the radar.
Of course, there is another inconvenient truth as it relates specifically to mass shooters. That is, many of them have no criminal record prior to the attack, which means they are not on any government list nor in the FBI’s NICS database. Since they have a clean record, there is nothing that would set off an alert if they were to purchase a firearm at a gun store.
All this to say that Hayden’s suggestion that more gun control laws will prevent future attacks is a specious one. When it comes to taking innocent lives, sadly, where there is a will, there is a way. Consequently, the best way to stop terrorism and mass shootings is for the government to encourage the citizens it serves to be armed and vigilant. We need to put these evildoers on notice. We need to show them that there will no longer be any soft targets. We need to constantly remind them that any attempt to perpetrate an attack will be futile, as it will be met with swift and lethal resistance.
Bonus: Watch Hayden discuss president-elect Trump’s cabinet picks.
That pesky 4th amendment gets in the way, so let’s look at crapping on the 2nd. I’m sick of these deep state, shallow citizens messing with our constitutional republic. He can ride a manure barge to Cuba where he belongs!
Wait, isn’t that Red Forman (70’s Show)?
So Hayden has no concept of the word hypocrite? A man who thinks its perfectly acceptable to spy on EVERYBODY, even us American citizens with these quaint ideas about constitutional rights. Bill of rights? Whats that, thats so yesterday. The same guy who flat out lied to congress about who he was spying and when, is now going to tell us since we have no actual rights anymore, that would include the 2nd amendment, we should just give up whatever he says we should. Who wants to bet he hasnt given up any of HIS rights, but is fine taking ours. And I have zero faith it such policies will change under the incoming president.
and by the way, in my opinion, anybody that foolish should also be on the NO-FLY list if they really want to use it so generally across the board.
I love our elites. They believe in Empire US in order to integrate economies and societies so they are interlocking thus creating less potential for war. Sounds good except we destroyed countries to do this. Saddam had WMD so we defeat and sanction Iraq. Let us have democracy in Arab nations so we help unleash Arab spring. Consequence, we took undemocratic, more secular and reasonable modern Arab countries and destroyed them, cause over millions of Arabs to die as their modern world breaks down or destroyed. Imagine if you are an Arab man, proud of his culture and society who just saw his modern world of youth reduced to near Mad Max level and had many relatives and family members die due to lack of medicine or food. You would be so mad at what the west did to civilians of his country he would have no hesitation to return the favor and kill civilians in the west. No ,matter how just US/NATO actions have consequences. Here is the ultimate madness of the west, after making typical Arab men really angry from the destruction, we invite him to come live among us and expect peaceful coexistence. Given the circumstances, want to stop terrorism in US, don t allow Muslims into the US.
Hayden is a total idiot and apparently is suffering from the onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s……….. A guy like him should be #1 on the hit list of our “friends” the Muslim Brotherhood………..
Can they buy propane tanks? Gasoline? Super-soakers?
How about a pressure washer system set up to spray gasoline?
ANFO?
Guns are but a small tip of the iceberg….just sayin’…
Correct me if I am wrong. Is this not the same degenerate prick who lied under oath in front of Congress during the NSA surveillance crime hearing? Yeahhhh…I thought so. This load that his mom should have swallowed, belongs behind bars along with the wannabe Cuntinchief.
He also wanted drone strikes on vehicles-whether or not they were terrorists. He also recently said on MSNBC that he wouldn’t consider himself a Republican. I am thinking the Bush appointees weren’t conservatives-Colin Powell became a Liberal, this guy evidently doesn’t believe in individual freedoms, and how many more idiots were there. I think Trump should appoint the most conservative people possible, including on the Supreme Court.
what steams me to is this. All the talk about banning guns and spending millions on these Syrian refugees, then why don’t we spend all that money here stopping illegal drugs ,and o yah, new flash Mr.Hayden heroin kills more people than guns ever thought about. Why not get with the program here and do the right thing and lobby for help where help is needed,here stopping the drug problem,or does this make since advice confuse you, and why we are at it, then why don’t you lobby to ban alcohol,cars,trucks,semis,and busses. Let me apologize for confusing you for making since.
Haha “some cars Americans should never own” that’s my response
anything made in a foreign country, or company owned by more than 20% foreign interest, there 57 countries in a pact right now to change the world currency and bring America to its KNEES, why support them??????????????? Get them first!!!!!!!!!!
NSA is a terrorist alphabet agency just like BATF. We need to eliminate these tyrannical and unconstitutional agencies
This guy is indeed a domestic enemy
Sounds to me like he should be classified as a domestic terrorist and sent to GTMO.
And since he is so keen on taking away our Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights, let’s tell him what religion he MUST worship while he’s at GTMO.
That’s your opinion Mr. Director. The 2nd Amendment says otherwise and 18 U.S.C. 241 reinforces that.
Well, let me get this straight. The fourth amendment is in the way, so let’s just screw up the second amendment a little more. How about just not letting our enemies in the door in the first place? Oh yea, that screws with the left wingers feel good rights. To accommodate the left wing feel good bullshit, we need to screw up our constitutional rights. Send them all back where they came from. Stop spending more money on those bastards than we give in benefits to our veterans and old folks. We never seem to run out of money on the left wing feel good bullshit, but we are always bankrupt when it comes to helping our own.
amen,what an idiot he is and if he don’t like the talk about Arabs coming over and screwing over our rights then he needs to move to Syria and sure Isis would love to have him.
There’s a lot more left, you bozo! Like eliminating ALL gun free (free kill) zones. Like training & arming more law abiding American citizens. Like having armed security at all large events. Like getting rid of fools like you, Hayden!
Shall not be infringed upon, wondering how a person with such a high powerful position is so ignorant he has so much difficulty with these 5 words. My Boston understands them why not him and so many other fools?
“The 4th amendment stands in the way” HAHAHAHAAAHAAAHAHAHA! Since when?
Uh, that’s kinda what the 4th Amendment is for. To stand in the way of an overreaching government.
Maybe this is picky, but I didn’t get the connection between the headline and the article. Or is this just more double talk from the “powers”?
I wonder if he owns any firearms and what kind?
Sadly, Hayden and his totalitarian ilk are ensconced in positions of power throughout our political, judicial and social systems. Individual freedom and responsibility is anathema to those who want to control every aspect of society. They are the enemies of free thought and freedom. We must be ever vigilant.
Hayden and his ilk are the enemy. Period.
If someone wants to commit a mass murder event it is much more efficient, and deadly, to simply get a large truck and drive into a crowd – as we have unfortunately seen several times in recent history. What will we do when this happens in the US, ban trucks? Cars? Buses? Any idiot can drive a vehicle into a crowd and cause mass casualties. To get the same effect with a firearm you need at least rudimentary skills – advanced skills if those people are able to defend themselves.
The ratio of firearms to people is without doubt much greater in the county where I live in the U.P. Of Michigan, than the city of Chicago. Last 4th of July weekend there were (as I recall) some 40 shootings in Chicago resulting in 8 deaths. Where I live there were none. Go figure.
T. Petrocik, I was in the U.P. over the 4th of July weekend as well, I don’t recall anything happening either. Interesting coincidence!!!
If ban guns but crime have a gun in hand and use using for robbery and how to stop the robbery without a gun. how u feeling ???
Learn English much?
What college did you go to? Berkeley?
I agree. Criminals do not obey the law. Gun bans of any kind will leave only the criminals with guns.
On a side note, I find it unfortunate that some posters would rather attack the messenger instead of appreciating a message that I think we can all agree on.
Or what about all the people that would die if someone hacked the electrical grid. Killed power in winter so people couldn’t heat homes or summer and they couldn’t cool them or traffic lights so people would have accidents….. how about that mr cyber guy
We shouldn’t be surprised that a top level bureaukrat, whether current or former, resents the Second Amendment.
Power has an irresistible tendency to corrupt.
They are only worried that when people have figured out what they have done running the government everything will come back ten fold. They all seem to want to eliminate the 2nd amendment for the people who obey the current regulations and only want the criminals (like them) or officers who have a power trip (many of them) to have access to anything other than a spear. I guess that is one way to protect themselves but it sucks for the rest of us.
Another butt kissing political general.i wish hack worth was still alive
Let’s see, the maximum mass casualties from the war on terror focused on civilians have been…
Airplanes
Trucks
Homemade Bombs
More people die in bathtubs every year than by terrorists in the USA.
Our government doesn’t ban any of these things… why? Because their primary purpose is not to defend our freedoms.
Tell you anything?
What a jackass. These intel community clowns are always trying anything they can to take a stab at convincing legislators and WE THE PEOPLE to expand their powers and authority to reduce our civil rights and give them more domination and control. I have the same distrust and contempt for them that I do the mass shooters and other criminals themselves. Idiots that think like this should never be able to hold a government position of any level as they themselves are our biggest threats to national and personal security.
Using Hayden’s logic: “…there might be some guns out there that nobody should be able to buy,” and in lieu of recent terrorist attacks in Germany, and elsewhere, we would have to conclude that:
There might be some TRUCKS out there that nobody should be able to buy, such as semi trucks and dump trucks. Why does anyone need all that killing power?
Yes – and in Germany, really most of Europe, you can’t buy a firearm without special permits already – so where are these terrorista getting their guns? Oh yeah, terrorists (and criminals) don’t follow the laws! Gun laws only hurt law-abiding citizens.
If “nobody” includes those we may someday have to oppose, then, sure! If not, then forget it.
Liberals are all cowards they have to much cream in there coffee. I don’t know what the fuss is about. We gun owners have always been targeted by them. If they try a ban I hope they come to my house first. They will then see how foolish and costly there fucked ban is. I’m for saw dusting any bastard saying they the right to take my weapons. As far as I’m concerned there is no law I would even pay attention to that contains that matter. I’m ready no I’m really ready. I’m will to go all the way with all these bullshit gun laws. How many people died because of liberals. Who and what are these people doing fucking a beautiful country. Every one needs to stand and say no more. Al hawkinson ps I think they should start a new country send all the liberals there.
Well said Allan !!!!!!
“I’m really ready. I’m will to go all the way with all these bullshit gun laws.”
Hey Al, you forgot to post your address. That would help things along, if you plan on becoming a martyr for the cause.
Allen Hawkinson, You present the image of a dyed in the wool individual who would fight the jack-booted tugs of the alphabet soup government agencies until the last bullet in your gun. Bravo, you will go out in a blaze of glory, …..and the rest of us will forget about you the next day.
But let me identify my regard for the mounting gun restrictions of the Federal Government. First off, I do not own a gun. I live in New York State and I believe my Governor Andrew Cuomo when he says that guns in the home cause tragic accidents among the children. He also said that gun ownership eventually leads to criminal behavior. Our governor initiated the New York S.A.F.E. act, a gun law that basically outlawed 146 models of rifles and shotguns. He said that these firearms were just too dangerous. For example, any AR15 type rifle must be registered just like a handgun. It can never be sold or even given to a family member. When the rifle owner dies, his estate must surrender the rifle to the New York State Police for destruction.
However, none of this affects me since I do not own a gun. Dear readers, you believe me don’t you?
(sarc. switch off)
Dunno, Joe, I think half the folks will stop reading before the last line.
they don’t even need guns, i.e. large truck runs down kill’s and hurts a lot of people. how many times has this happened now? more then 3 times i think. anti-gunners just keep trying one lame reason and another to take away guns. they know none of it will really work but that’s not their reason anyway. disarm the American citizen is their end game that’s it. anything they say all means the same, “we must take away the guns before we can really do the things we want to”. Control is the key and you’re not going to control the mass’s as long as their armed. but this they also understand and is the reason they are training kids in school’s to know if you draw a picture of a gun, make the shape of a gun out of a piece of bread, wear a shirt that has anything to do with a firearm, say the word gun and it goes on and on, you will be kicked out of school. this puts in the mind over time that guns are bad and get me in trouble. i don’t smoke, but it was the same with smoking. first they said oh just label’s on cig. packs. then it was you can’t smoke here or there or there to the point were now you can’t even smoke outside in a stadium. so see it never is come right out and say we going to take your guns away we just want to have this little law for this reason nothing more. with the government it’s always MORE. read, learn, educate, vote. show others what you find out and get them to do the things you do so they can learn on their own what is happening in our country, notice i said our country not some 3rd world place or Europe where for me i don’t care what they do there it’s when it gets here that we’ll take care of it. you’re not going to able to stop crazy’s coming here and doing thing’s with the way we maintain our borders anyway. maybe that will be different with President Trump hope so but only time will tell and i know how he has already taken to slipping back on what he said when he was trying to get elected.
“Since the Fourth Amendment stands in the way of additional surveillance measures, Hayden said it may be time to focus on expanding regulations on one’s right to keep and bear arms.”
So what he’s basically saying is, “We’ve raped the Fourth Amendment about as much as possible, so let’s go ahead and use that as an excuse to violate the bejeezus out of the Second Amendment too.” This is what passes for protecting and defending the Constitution in Washington these days.
The whole point of having a Bill of Rights in the first place is that such rights are inviolate. They are understood to be granted by our Creator. We are born with them. Government did not grant them in its holy benevolence, therefore government has no right to strip us of them. Neither can we be deprived of same by a majority vote of our well meaning but misinformed neighbors.
How quickly many among us have forgotten the sage advice of Benjamin Franklin, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
This Hayden guy is just another political operative for Soros and Co. If someone is intent on creating mass casualties, they can do it more efficiently and effectively without a firearm, with anything from common gasoline, explosives, chemicals or any number of other methods. Dipshits like this guy and his ilk are not thinking people and will do nothing with their backward agendas but make more victims. Good men have to have the tools and will to commit violence against those that would kill us like fish in a barrel.
Ban will never work, confiscation will not work: didn’t work on alcohol, didn’t work on drugs. Current black guns will still be running in a 100 years. Degrading the Rights of millions of people to “possibly but very unlikely” stop a mass murderer is a ignorant concept but it is effective in disarming the population which is the true goal.
When we had a proliferation of aircraft hijackings did the Government or pundits call to end all civilian flying? Flying is not a protected Right. No. They hardened soft targets, increased vigilance. Just as criminals in gun restricted countries still get guns, use blades or explosives, proves removal of a tool does not deter and eliminate threats. Gun control for the purpose of stopping violence on any level is a fools errand.
Mass shooters are the modern guerilla kamikaze. They must be delt with the same way. Some will still hit their target others will fail and die. That is the nature of this battle but it will have no real impact on the War.
Well said, Will..!
Hear hear!
Outlawing all EFFECTIVE arms and relegating American citizens to nothing more than limited low capacity sporting arms will be as effective in stopping terrorism as it is in France! Of course it WILL take ALL THE POWER POSSESSED BY AMERICAN CITIZENS IN BEING A DETERRENT TO TYRANNY! Can’t keep secure your freedoms armed with limited low capacity sporting arms. Well now – THAT is really the whole point isn’t it.
EFFECTIVE CITIZEN DISARMAMENT – rendering the second amendment meaningless
“FAKE NEWS” crisis to silence all but government propaganda outlets. rendering the first amendment meaningless.
Forget the fourth amendment – it’s gone – foolish words to fool fools.
You think this is all over cause TRUMP won? FORGET IT!
PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT SOROS IS UP TO – THIS FIGHT IS JUST GETTING STARTED!
if they get what they want there will be no “low capacity sporting arms” either. they want everyone to believe they only want a few type’s but in the end they want ALL of them just as Australia did.
He is a “former” NSA director…..He can stay that way as far as I’m concerned. If all he can think of is to degrade our constitutional rights, then he doesn’t need any govt job. And…..if there are guns that WE (civilians) shouldn’t be able to buy, then the govt agencies shouldn’t be able to have them either.
correct