| | | Proposed law to stop terror suspects from buying guns in U.S. faces NRA, GOP opposition
BY CAMERON JOSEPH, LARRY MCSHANE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 12:18 AM
nydailynews.com
The NRA — and their gun-loving Republican cohorts — are refusing once more to stop terrorists intent on getting armed in the U.S.A.
A legal loophole allows suspected terrorists on the government’s no-fly list to legally buy guns, but a bill to fix that will likely wither on the vine. The federal Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, even in the wake of last week’s terrorist killing of 129 people in Paris, remains a long shot due to its rabid pro-gun opponents.
“Anything which they feel restricts the use or the ability to retain a gun they’re opposed to,” bill co-sponsor Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) told the Daily News.
“It’s sort of a knee-jerk reaction,” he said Tuesday. “The National Rifle Association is strongly opposed to it and the fact is we have only a handful of Republican co-sponsors.”
The legislation was initially proposed in 2007 by the Bush administration, with King formally introducing the bill in Congress two years later.
Currently, some known or suspected terrorists are prohibited from boarding airplanes by the government’s no-fly list — but all are allowed to buy assault rifles and other weapons.
While the bill remained a nonstarter, more than 2,000 suspects on the FBI’s Terrorist Watchlist bought weapons in the U.S. over the last 11 years, according to the federal Government Accountability Office.
The GAO reported that 91% of all suspected terrorists who tried to buy guns in America walked away with the weapon they wanted over the time period, with just 190 rejected despite their ominous histories.
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