Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
That's why even those of us who strongly support the Second Amendment also support federal laws prohibiting the most dangerous among us from purchasing or possessing firearms and explosives.
There's one problem: The restrictions in place for convicted felons and the seriously mentally ill do not apply to those on terrorist watch lists. A Government Accountability Office report found that individuals on terrorist watch lists tried to buy guns and explosives 1,228 times over a six-year period ending in 2010. In nine of out of 10 cases, the FBI could do nothing about it.
President George W. Bush recognized that this was a problem. In 2007, Bush asked Congress to give the FBI the power to block gun and explosives sales to suspected terrorists. The Justice Department endorsed the concept. Nothing came of it. Now, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., have drafted legislation that attempts to close what they call the "terror gap."