Quote:
Originally Posted by MT2008
No, it's not like holding gun stores accountable for their customers' actions at all. It's one thing for an FFL to sell a gun to a person who passes the NICS and shows no sign of being dangerous, who then uses the gun to kill somebody. Then the dealer has done nothing wrong or illegal (although personally, if I were an FFL and I sold a weapon that was used in a homicide, I would feel pretty bad about it).
What Bout has done is the equivalent of an FFL selling weapons repeatedly to fugitives who are wanted for multiple murders, when he knew exactly who they were and what they intended to use the weapons for. Any FFL who did that would go to jail, and likewise, an international arms dealer who sells to people like Mullah Omar or Charles Taylor deserves the same (or worse) punishment. He has to be held accountable for what he's done, and personally, I'm happy that it's us and not some disorganized bureaucratic international body that took custody of him.
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The rules apply to Mr. FFL because he is a United States citizen operating within the United States of America. Bout is a Russian citizen operating almost everywhere except the United States, and even then he still did business with the United States government with their full knowledge of who he was and what he did.
I guess the thing that bothers me is not that they're going after him, but that Bout is being handled by the civilian criminal justice system. I find the implications of the government claiming jurisdiction over the entire world to be quite chilling. I don't see any reason why this couldn't be handled the old fashioned way.