Background Checks

[Berkut]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

There are a few basic claims in oppostion of background checks:[LIST=1][*]That officials don't have the access to kids to commit such crime[LIST][*]I've provided an example that directly refutes those ideas...that the claim that officials don't get such access is false. They do...maybe not as much as teachers or coaches...but they do.

This is incorrect. You have not shown an example of where officials have access due to their being officials that is somehow more privileged than they would otherwise.

Everyone has "access" to kids - since we don't lock kids away in a tower.

Further, as has been asked *several* times, where are the statistics that show this is a problem beyond a singular anecdote, which we have no details about, and frankly, have no real idea is actually relevant?

You are saying that tens of thousands of officials should undergo background checks because of *one* incident?

[*]Most people convicted or just about any crime have a hard time changing their behavior....why allow them (those who have a problem that could impact the kids) in a position that puts them closer to the kids than the general public.

Officials are not "closer" to kids than the general public. The general public is MUCH closer to kids than an official acting in his official capacity. Indeed, I have never once been alone with a child due to my job as an official, yet I am alone with children almost every single day outside that capacity. I suspect this is true for almost all officials.

Basicaly, the oppostion to them has little merit.

No, the demand for them has no merit, and since the burden of proof is on those asking us to submit to them, that ought to be telling. There has not been a single compelling argument made for background checks. The claim that this is a problem has, as its totality of evidence, a single unsourced and un-examined anecdotal "just so" story, while repeated requests for objective measures of the problem have been refused.

The opposition is incredibly simple - you don't have the right to poke around in other people private lives unless you can show a compelling need to do so. No such need has been shown, or even attempted to be shown.

Your entire argument sums up to "Well, if you don't have anything to hide, then it should not matter if I dig into your personal life".

Your statements about your willingness to divulge personal information to others in an effort to get them blacklisted even for crimes that have nothing to do with children is rather telling, I suspect.