Suspected
terrorists can buy guns legally in the US — and that's how the NRA
wants it
Good people can disagree about guns.
Though I’ve always leaned left in my political views, I believe
that Americans have a constitutional right to keep and bear arms. I owned a gun
for many years myself — at least until my conviction for blowing the whistle on
the CIA’s torture program canceled my Second Amendment rights.
But there’s a problem that warrants immediate attention. You
see, current law allows suspected terrorists, including those on the “No Fly
List,” to legally purchase weapons.
That’s right. I can’t legally buy a gun. But suspected
terrorists can.
Adam Gadahn, also known as Azzam al-Amriki, was an American citizen. Born and raised in California, he converted to Islam in 1995 and became a senior advisor to Osama bin Laden. Gadahn became al-Qaeda’s media expert, producing a slick magazine and videos to help the group recruit even more Americans to its cause.
Gadahn was killed in a U.S. missile strike in Pakistan earlier
this year. But as early as 2011, he urged would-be American jihadists to buy
weapons and turn them on their innocent compatriots. “What are you waiting
for?” he asked. “Buy today, kill tomorrow!”
American intelligence and law enforcement agencies knew about
this threat. So did Congress. And nobody did anything.
Indeed, at least 2,043 people on the terrorist watch list legally
purchased weapons in the United States between 2004 and 2014. We know this
because they actually filled out the necessary paperwork with gun dealers. What
we don’t know is how many people on the list purchased weapons from private gun
dealers or owners. They don’t have to keep records.
Who could possibly support this arrangement? Just a little
outfit called the National Rifle Association.
Some members of Congress — and even officials in George W.
Bush’s administration — recognized the potential disaster if homegrown
terrorists could purchase weapons and use them in domestic attacks. Several
lawmakers sponsored measures to put a stop to these purchases immediately.
But the NRA protested, saying that it would be unfair for any
Americans improperly placed on the no-fly list to not be able to buy guns.
Though government watch lists have been criticized for being overly broad,
the NRA’s backers offered no compelling arguments for why travel rights and
other freedoms should be restricted but not gun purchases. Nonetheless, the
measures were killed.
There seems to be some new life in Congress to close this
loophole. Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker, and Robert Menendez vowed recently to “fight the NRA tooth and nail” on the
issue and to prevent terrorist suspects from buying guns. That’s great.
But the NRA’s arguments carry a lot of weight in Congress. And a
lot of conservatives apparently would rather risk an attack than impinge on the
rights of anybody to buy a gun.
Maybe that attitude will change if there’s another deadly attack
by suspected terrorists on U.S. soil. Maybe not. I for one don’t want to
find out. We should fix this now.
OtherWords
columnist John Kiriakou is an associate fellow at the Institute for
Policy Studies and the winner of the 2015 PEN Center USA
First Amendment award. OtherWords.org.