On April 16, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified the Biden Administration’s Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism. This memo is shocking evidence of a government-led objective to subvert the Second Amendment and stifle free speech, and is concrete evidence of numerous violations of civil liberties along with massive government overreach.
Background
In October of 2024, news broke on President Joe Biden’s Executive Order that implicitly authorized the use of force against American civilians on the basis of combating the risk of “domestic terrorism.” Many dismissed this as a non-event and asserted it had no teeth. The recently declassified memo from this week completely subverts that narrative. The Biden administration was undoubtedly targeting law-abiding Americans through surveillance, propaganda, and disarmament initiatives at all levels of law enforcement.
The new memo was developed under the auspices of the National Security Council (NSC), staff-convened Counterterrorism Security Group/Domestic Violent Extremism (CSG/DVE).
For context, the National Security Council was established under the National Security Act of 1947 which created the Central Intelligence Agency and made permanent the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to reorganize the command of all branches of the military and the Department of Defense. The members of the NSC include the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the Treasury Secretary, the Attorney General among many others with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the military advisor to the NSC. In other words, not a special task force, but rather the highest levels of government.
In addition, this Strategic Implementation Plan tasks the entire White House Domestic Policy Council (DPC) to oversee the implementation. Gun owners and Second Amendment groups expressed deep concern over the creation of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention during Biden years, which appeared to be a relatively small staff given a vague tasking. It instead appears that both the entire National Security team AND the entire domestic policy team (essentially the entire Executive branch) was given combating “domestic terrorism” through this plan as a top priority.
What Does It Say? What Does It Mean?
It’s important to define the terms as the then-government understood them. “Domestic Terrorism” is synonymous with “anti-government or anti-authority… extremists.” Look no further than the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Symbols Guide which associated symbols such as the Gadsden Flag, revolutionary war imagery, and even the Betsy Ross flag as symbols related to Militia Violent Extremists (MVEs).
The Biden-era memo was constructed around the following Four Pillars:
- Understand and Share Domestic Terrorism-Related Information
- Prevent Domestic Terrorism Recruitment and Mobilization to Violence
- Disrupt and Deter Domestic Terrorism Activity
- Confront Long-Term Contributors to Domestic Terrorism
When understood in the context above, these pillars should be a terrifying example of a government that is hostile to and actively undermining any individual or group of individuals who may be critical of the government, or even simply pro-Constitution. But let’s dive in deeper for proof.
Pillar 1
Pillar 1 was comprised of three initiatives:
- Enhance domestic terrorism-related research and analysis
- Improve information sharing across all levels
- Illuminate transnational aspects of domestic terrorism
To conduct this research and analysis would have required surveillance of Americans’ communications, online activities, and associations without specific warrants. Further, the entire framework of the memo suggests that the government targeted individuals based on protected free speech and ideological bent, rather than through actions. The implications are chilling. Not only did they violate your right to privacy, but if you engaged in Constitutionally-protected activities, you may have been a specific target of their data-gathering and list making. Did you take a firearms training class? Gather with a free-speech group? Express your religiously-backed objection to abortion?
And what did they do with this information? To put it bluntly, the memo created a de facto surveillance state. The information was to be shared across multiple agencies, according to the memo, including: DOJ, FBI, DHS, NCTC, ODNI.
Pillar 2
Pillar 2 was comprised of two initiatives:
- Strengthen DT prevention resources and services
- Address online DT recruitment and mobilization
Pillar two was essentially a massive taxpayer-funded propaganda campaign designed to dissuade anyone from critical thinking. The goal was to combat “online disinformation” and “DT recruitment and narratives,” putting the government in the position of arbiter of what is true and not true. And remember, in order to combat “disinformation,” the government would have first had to have been illegally monitoring conversations, content, articles, discussions, etc.
And the government-propaganda message would have been clear, the same way it sold us the Patriot Act:
Americans should prioritize security and ideological conformity over individual liberty and transparency.
Pillar 3
Pillar 3 was comprised of three initiatives:
- Enable investigation and prosecution of DT crimes
- Assess potential legislative reforms
- Ensure screening and vetting consider all terrorism threats
This is where the memo starts to show how the policy has teeth. It provided funding (“appropriate federal resources”) and suggested creating “new legislative authorities.” Why? Because it would be hard to prosecute someone for Constitutionally protected activities under current law. Thus, new, capricious laws needed to be created that would allow for enforcement. But it’s the third initiative that is truly nefarious. It indicates that there were “non-Federal partners” who included “private sector entities.” Who were they? Will we ever know?
Pillar 4
Pillar 4 has some important statements which implicate the Second Amendment, including this objective to ensure:
Lethal means for perpetrating acts of domestic terrorism are reduced.
Let us interpret: disarm the population. Firearms are the primary lethal means by which the People are able to resist a tyrannical government. In their own words:
Restrict “ghost guns,” promote extreme risk protection orders, and pursue bans on “assault weapons” and high-capacity magazines.
Analysis and Conclusion
Of particular concern is the heavy focus on Extreme Risk Protection Orders in this context. Red flag laws, as told to the public, were meant to address general public safety and keeping weapons out of the hands of the mentally unwell, those likely to self-harm or harm others in an effort to prevent mass shootings. In this context, it is clear that the disarmament goal stretches far beyond that narrower definition and includes defining those with a different viewpoint as a threat.
The memo concludes with a statement that is both pure gaslighting and insulting to any freedom-loving American, with the directive to ensure:
Americans have increasing faith in democracy and government.
If not for the Trump administration, we would likely not know about this memo or the massive, complicit effort by nearly all major branches of government to undermine the Second Amendment and disarm Americans. To what end? Well, history speaks to that.
