Sasse: Take Guns First, Due Process Second ‘Not How America Works’

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) responded to President Trump’s comments on due process and gun violence restraining orders by stating that the president’s approach is putting government first and it’s “not how America works.”

Sasse said, “So, here’s what America means: It means that we believe that rights come to us from God via nature, and government exists to secure and protect our rights. Government doesn’t give us rights. And when you say something like, we’ll take the guns first. We’ll grab the guns first and later we’ll have a due process conversation, what that means is government is first, and hopefully you have a bureaucrat that you trust to decide what rights you have. That’s not how America works. So, American citizens have the whole Bill of Rights available to them, and then in the cases of people who are deranged or have committed crimes, then we do due process and we take away certain privileges that they have.”

He added, “In the cases of people who have mental health problems, we should obviously do something to make sure that they can’t get access to weapons. But that needs to happen via due process, not through some bureaucrat who gets to preordain who gets what First Amendment and Second Amendment rights.”

Sasse further stated, “I am excited about the fact the White House, which has the biggest megaphone in the world, today said a bunch of more truly American things about the Bill of Rights and what rights American citizens have. Yesterday, in that meeting, the tape is the tape. And if you say you’re going to grab guns first and worry about due process later, that’s not something that should give your listeners and viewers a lot of comfort.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett