Report: 2,000 terror suspects have legally bought guns in US since 2004

Some lawmakers are working to close a loophole in gun laws that allows suspected terrorists to purchase guns legally.

|
Frank Augstein/AP
A bullet hole in the window of the restaurant on Rue de Charonne, Paris, where terror attacks took place on Friday, Nov. 13, 2015.

A report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicates that more than 2,000 terror suspects have been able to purchase guns legally between 2004 and 2014.

"Membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law," GAO concluded in 2010, according to the Washington Post.

The GAO reported that at least 2,233 attempts were made by suspected terrorists to purchase firearms over that 10-year period, and that those attempts were successful 91 percent of the time.

Under federal law, individuals who have a history of felonies, domestic violence, or mental illness are prohibited from possessing a gun. But the federal government has no power to stop people on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist, which includes the no-fly list, from buying firearms.

But placement on the terrorism watchlist is controversial. The Intercept reported last April that, the guidelines for putting people on the list don’t require any evidence they are actually linked to a terrorist organization.

“Instead of a watchlist limited to actual known terrorists, the government has built a vast system based on the unproven and flawed premise that it can predict if a person will commit a terrorist act in the future,” says Hina Shamsi, the head of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “On that dangerous theory, the government is secretly blacklisting people as suspected terrorists and giving them the impossible task of proving themselves innocent of a threat they haven’t carried out.” Shamsi who reviewed the [guidelines] document added, “These criteria should never have been kept secret.”

Over the years, efforts have been made by lawmakers to close the loophole and prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and explosives. But because of strong opposition by gun rights supporters, none has been successful.

“The National Rifle Association which opposed previous bills, argued that the watchlist is too broad because it includes people who are still being investigated by authorities,” ABC News reports.

This year, there is a new piece of legislation, named the "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015" sponsored by Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Rep. Peter T. King (R) of New York that, “would prevent several hundred gun purchases by suspected terrorists each year, and it includes provisions to let people challenge a denial if they believe they were placed on the watchlist in error,” Washington Post writer Christopher Ingraham points out.

On Wednesday, the NRA spoke out and denied the allegations that the lobby group is against a law seeking to stop terror suspects from buying guns in the US. 

“The National Rifle Association wants to prevent terrorists from obtaining any deadly weapon and to suggest otherwise is offensive and wrong,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker told the New York Daily News. “It is not surprising that anti-gun politicians and publications are distorting the facts to push a gun control agenda.”

The conversation on gun control has gained renewed traction following a terrorist attack in Paris last week that left at least 129 people dead and hundreds injured. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Report: 2,000 terror suspects have legally bought guns in US since 2004
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2015/1119/Report-2-000-terror-suspects-have-legally-bought-guns-in-US-since-2004
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe