License plate cameras are logging cars outside gun shops and ranges, and AI can turn those records into a list in seconds. Add your name and declare that Americans will not be tracked, cataloged, and flagged by AI without a warrant.
For most of history, the greatest check on tyranny was logistics. Tracking one citizen took informants, paperwork, agents on street corners, and warrants. Even the most ruthless regimes could only watch so many people at once.
Cameras and databases removed the work of collecting information. AI removes the work of making sense of it. What once took thousands of analysts can now be done by one program in seconds. For the first time, the tools to watch an entire population are cheap, fast, and automatic, and the only thing standing between those tools and abuse is the rules we set now.
This isn't opposition to technology. AI can help American businesses innovate, help doctors tackle complex diseases, and strengthen our national defense. But using a helpful tool is different from surrendering our judgment and our constitutional freedoms to it.
Florida troopers arrested 23-year-old Lindsey Isaacs for a fatal hit-and-run based on Flock camera data tied to her black Dodge Durango, though witnesses described a maroon one. Her SUV had no collision damage. Prosecutors dropped all eight charges. Source
Iraq War veteran Steven Melvin was pulling into his own apartment complex when deputies drew their weapons on him. According to his lawsuit, a Flock camera misread one letter of his plate and flagged his car as stolen. Source
Tennessee grandmother Angela Lipps was jailed after facial recognition matched her to a fake ID used in North Dakota bank thefts. Bank records later showed she was in Tennessee when the thefts happened. Source
If an algorithm can get it that wrong, it can flag an innocent gun owner, block a firearm transfer, or trigger an investigation you never hear about.
We, the undersigned, declare that Americans will not be tracked, cataloged, and flagged by AI without a warrant. We stand for these principles:
"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." James Madison, Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1788
A camera on every light pole, recording silently and automatically, is the very definition of a silent encroachment. The Founders didn't anchor our liberty in anyone's good intentions. They drew firm lines.
Privacy isn't partisan. The Fourth Amendment protects every American. A gun owner in Texas, a privacy advocate in California, and a parent in Ohio can all agree: government must get a warrant, and no computer program should decide our freedoms without human review.