Democratic lawmakers in the House were hailed in liberal circles for their 25-hour sit-in to force a vote on gun regulation bills.

Dramatic selfies of Congress members on the Capitol’s floor flooded social media. It was a successful media stunt that failed to adequately address the issue of gun
violence.

Democrats are pushing for problematic legislation that calls for depriving individuals on the No Fly and Terrorist Watch lists of their Second Amendment rights.

It has been well-documented that federal watch lists are undependable for identifying potentially violent individuals.

The No Fly list has unjustifiably targeted respected Arab Americans, including a paralyzed Dearborn Heights man. It took away folks’ freedom to travel without due process. To also selectively annul their constitutional right to bear arms further victimizes them without reducing gun violence.

In 2014, four Muslim New York residents filed a lawsuit against the federal government because the FBI tried to use the No Fly list recruit them, offering to remove them from the list if they worked as informants for the Bureau.

The Terrorist Watch list is not without flaws, either. According to government documents published by the Intercept, almost half the names on the list have no recognized affiliations with terrorist groups.

A leaked 2014 federal report claimed that Dearborn is considered to have the second highest ratio of people with known or suspected terrorist ties. We know this report to be false and based on ethnic and religious profiling.

Federal officials who know the Dearborn community have gone to length to disprove the report’s “findings.”

“I can assure the public that Dearborn is filled with great American patriots – U.S service members, police officers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, business people, laborers and good neighbors,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Barbara McQuade said from the steps of Dearborn City Hall, standing by Arab and Muslim community leaders. (Some of those leaders have been on the No Fly list).

Ironically, Omar Mateen, the terrorist who murdered 49 people in Orlando, had been removed from the Watch list before the attack, the L.A. Times reported. San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook was not on the list to begin with. Neither were Charleston terrorist Dylann Roof or Planned Parenthood murderer Robert Dear.

We also doubt that the No Fly and Terrorist Watch lists include misguided youths settling disputes with guns.

As civil rights activists struggle to challenge profiling, it is disheartening to see Democratic lawmakers’ spending more than a day on the House floor to push bills that would reinforce and legitimize the discriminatory No Fly and Terrorist Watch lists.

Despite his far right rhetoric, Donald Trump, the presumed Republican nominee, supports banning weapon sales to people on the No Fly and Terrorist Watch lists.

Gun violence in America is a dangerous problem that needs to be addressed urgently. More profiling and discrimination is not the solution.

Democrats have an ideological agenda against guns. It is not wrong to advance reasonable policies in response to a crisis. However, capitalizing on the Orlando tragedy to pass legislation that would encourage ethnic profiling is irresponsible.

Many liberals who would principally oppose the draconianism of the Terrorist Watch and No Fly lists praised Democrats’ stance on the House floor and found them admirable and resilient.

Bottom line, in today’s social media-driven world, one has to look deeper, beyond the broad slogans and populace rhetoric. The devil is often in the details.