Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino told
Newsmax TV on Thursday that Americans' Second Amendment rights could someday keep them alive in this age of lone wolf terror attacks.
During an appearance on "Newsmax Prime," Bongino told host J.D. Hayworth the fight against terrorism is becoming more and more difficult for law enforcement and federal authorities to control.
"It could get very bad," Bongino said. "These lone wolf attacks make it really difficult to find these people because that interconnected network isn't really there. We've seen over and over as these people get caught because they get sloppy as [in] the Boston case, where he started Tweeting out on social media his intentions."
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Bongino was referring to the situation in Boston this week, in which one suspect was shot dead by authorities and another was arrested.
The two men were allegedly planning to behead police officers.
Bongino, who is also a former New York City police officer, praised the efforts of police and federal agents to keep Americans safe. But he said their job is not to keep watch outside every American's home day and night.
"The police do a wonderful job, so do the federal agents when they can, but the police's job is to enforce the law," Bongino said.
"That's why these self-protection rights, the Second Amendment, the ability to learn to protect yourself and to not be reliant on the law enforcement operation as the first line of defense, is so important. What if these lone wolf attacks in any small business, in any small or large town in the United States, not only do you have the violence potential, but you're going to shut down possibly that town and you're definitely going to destroy that person's business. That's why all of this, all our freedoms, are so important. I can't emphasize that enough."
Bongino also commented on
the Patriot Act, which expired over the weekend, and its cousin,
the USA Freedom Act.
"The lone wolf provision was well written and roving wiretaps was well written as well," Bongino said of the Patriot Act.
"But 2-15, which was the business records provision, which was written and that was the authority for the metadata collection, in my opinion, was written sloppily. We were sacrificing a bit of liberty for security right there and the security component of it wasn't as genuine as people are trying to sell us. With my experience investigating with the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the system works with that judicial intervention outside of the FISA courts. I don't think that government needs to be the repository, this metadata, to keep us safe. It was unnecessary."
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