And can I bring my gun to Gitmo?

The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms.

Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., "would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere 'suspicions' of a terrorist threat."

"As many of our friends in law enforcement have rightly pointed out, the word 'suspect' has no legal meaning, particularly when it comes to denying constitutional liberties," Cox wrote.

Actually, "suspect" has considerable meaning in this this man's Bush Administration. It means the government can keep you off airplanes, of course. It means they can listen in on all of your phone calls and look at your browsing habits, all without warrants. More significantly, it means they can lock you up beyond the reach of the courts, deny you the right to counsel or trial, waterboard you, and do any other damn thing they want.

But, says Chris Cox (who gave me the willies when I met him a long time ago), they can't take away your Uzi.