Bill would require new gun applicants to turn over social media passwords

It can often be the first warning sign of danger to come.

In case after case, mass shooters have used social media to publish their violent thoughts.

Nikolas Cruz, the accused Parkland shooter who killed 17 students and staff members, wrote in a YouTube comment, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” prior to the massacre.

Accused Pittsburgh synagogue gunman, Robert Bowers, called Jews, “the children of satan,” prior to the massacre.

Now, a new bill proposed in the New York State Legislature wants to make social media part of a gun buyer’s background checks.

You turn your passwords over to police officers and they proceed to check your accounts for violent or hateful posts.

Gun owners have said, it is a violation of their rights.

“My right to my privacy, and my right to go ahead and buy a firearm as long as I’m legally allowed to,” Jon Dezendorf, a manager of Fowler Firearms.

But some gun control advocates, like former Democratic candidate Parisma Taeb, said it is merely making use of information that is usually publicly available anyway.

“Other mass shooters, when they have posted on social media these disturbing, violent, and hateful comments, which no one really pays attention to,” Dr. Taeb said. “That could have saved a lot of lives.”

So what do you think? Invasion of privacy or life saving step?

“I think that’s a great idea,” Tim Burton said. “It’s a way to find out about a person’s actual behavior through social media.”

“Definitely not my password,” Dezendorf said. “That’s an invasion of privacy.”