Democrats push to prevent gun sales to those on terror list

[applegrove]

Democrats push to prevent gun sales to those on terror list

By MICHAEL BIESECKER and ALAN FRAM at AP

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/0c69a266d4e6444b833b099da4b088c6/democrats-push-prevent-gun-sales-those-terror-list

"SNIP............


WASHINGTON (AP) — People on the U.S. government's terrorist watch list often can't board commercial airliners, but they can walk into a gun store and legally buy pistols and powerful military-style rifles.

Sensing a political opening from last week's Paris attacks, Democrats are renewing calls for Congress to pass legislation aimed at preventing terrorists from buying guns. Similar bills — including a post-9/11 measure backed by the Justice Department under Republican President George W. Bush — have been stymied for years, thanks in large part to opposition from gun-rights groups and congressional Republicans.

According to a March analysis by the Government Accountability Office, people on the FBI's consolidated Terrorist Watchlist successfully passed the background check required to purchase firearms more than 90 percent of the time, with more than 2,043 approvals between 2004 and 2014. The office is an investigative branch of Congress.

The FBI is notified when a background check for the purchase of firearms or explosives generates a match with the watch list, and agents often use that information to step up surveillance on terror suspects. Under current federal law, however, association with a terrorist organization doesn't prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives.



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[Lizzie Poppet]

1. If they're going to do this, they need to clean up the damn list.

The Terrorist Watch List has over 1.5 million names on it. The idea that everyone on it is a genuine terrorist prospect is, obviously, absurd (or we'd have exponentially more terror incidents). I have a feeling that a lot of people found themselves on the list for the heinous crime of "looking Middle Eastern."

If we're going to deny the exercise of an enumerated right without due process to people on a terrorism watch list, then that list needs a LOT of work.

[EL34x4]

2. At the very least, people need to be notified if they're on it

And be offered the opportunity to argue their case to be removed from it.

It is a crime to lie on a 4473 form when buying a firearm. If this law were to pass (and it really has no chance of ever passing) they would have to add the line "are you on the government's no-fly list?" to the list of prohibitive questions. How would the applicant know how to truthfully answer the question as the no-fly list is secret?

[Lizzie Poppet]

3. That would work.

Of course, notifying people would say "we're on to you" to a real terrorist who got on the list. But I'm not sure that matters a lot, as any actual trained operative is probably already assuming they're under at least some surveillance. They'll already be conducting any preparations for a strike as stealthily as possible.

There needs to be a way to appeal a listing. And simply being suggested for the list shouldn't almost automatically (>98%) get you on it.

[petronius]

4. They may have done some cleaning, as a recent WaPo article

says it's ~700,000 names on the list. And, I'm not sure that they're all US residents/citizens.

That said, I strongly agree, Democrats should be taking a very critical view of lists like this: how they're used, expanded, error-checked. And the default should be to tighten their use, enhance the rigor of the process, increase the transparency, reduce the spread of their application...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/16/why-the-nra-opposed-laws-to-prevent-suspected-terrorists-from-buying-guns/

[derby378]

5. Due process

An unaccountable watch list is not due process. So there.