Posted on: September 2nd, 2010 |
U.S. Allowed Terrorists on No-Fly List to Buy Guns |
| Town Hall September 1, 2010 Terry Jeffrey U.S. Allowed Terrorists on No-Fly List to Buy Guns The only thing stupider than allowing a known foreign terrorist into the United States may be allowing that terrorist to buy guns. Current U.S. law allows this happen. It also allows known terrorists on the no-fly list to buy guns. Perhaps worse still, the U.S. government has approved background checks for watch-listed terrorists to possess explosives in the United States. From March 2009 through February 2010, according to prepared congressional testimony from Eileen Larence, the Government Accountability Office's director of homeland security and justice issues, 272 NICS background checks turned up individuals on the terrorist watch list. All but one was for a firearms purchase. The other was for explosives. "One of the 272 transactions involved an explosives background check, which was allowed to proceed because the check revealed no disqualifying factors under the Safe Explosives Act," Larence testified. Of the 271 firearms-background checks that revealed the prospective gun purchaser was on the terrorist watch list, only 22 resulted in the would-be purchaser being denied a gun. The other 249 transactions were allowed to proceed. Some of the watch-listed terrorists allowed to buy guns were on the no-fly list. "According to FBI officials, several of th |