Chalk one up for the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU). The group is reportedly working to stop the City of New York from employing high-tech body scanners on city streets in an effort to identify anyone carrying a firearm. The City, whose intentions are good, is seeking to implement this technology because its physical body pat-downs are being challenged as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. The scanners would make the pat-downs virtual rather than physical, which the NYCLU rightly argues remains an arbitrary, and therefore unreasonable, search of citizens.

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is only trying to protect the public.  But in doing so this way, his department would be putting individuals at greater risk, ultimately, than they are from being shot. Technology designed to protect the public can be used to enslave it in the future.  Tyranny is more dangerous than a handgun.

The Constitution was not written to protect us from one another. It was written to protect us from government’s encroachment on our liberties, which is what this is. Fight on, NYCLU.