Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Our gun laws are too lax

Imagine that a known terrorist walks into a gun shop and buys an assault rifle or other high-powered weapon. Imagine that person is confronted over the purchase but argues it is legal, and that none other than the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Rifle Association agree with that interpretation of law.

Now imagine that this isn't a bad plot from a TV crime show but everyday reality in America. In fact, 35 gun purchases by people on the nation's terrorist watch list were approved in a five-month period last year. And those are just the ones uncovered by the Government Accountability Office in a study done for Congress.

"According to the Department of Justice, under federal and state law, neither suspected nor actual membership in a terrorist organization is a stand-alone factor that would prohibit a person from receiving or possessing a firearm," the GAO reported.

At least now the FBI is reviewing those gun purchases, although there is little it can do about them. For more than two years after the 2001 attacks, the FBI wasn't even notified when a suspected terrorist was identified during a background check. We can thank legal interpretations by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department for that situation, although it changed last year so that the sale is at least delayed while law enforcement officials investigate. Even then, the FBI cannot stop the purchase unless the buyer fits limited restrictions in the law, such as being a convicted felon.

So of 44 attempts by someone on the terrorist watch list to buy a gun, only six were denied and the outcome in three others is unknown, the GAO found.

That sounds about right to NRA spokesman Wayne LaPierre, who said no one should be denied the right to buy a gun unless there's "a good reason." According to LaPierre, merely being on a terrorist watch list isn't a good reason.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, has filed a bill that would at least keep up with those guns by requiring the FBI to keep purchase records for 10 years; currently they must be destroyed within 24 hours. It's not likely to go far, however, because the Republican majority follows the NRA's lead, and LaPierre says the names of those who buy a gun "should not be retained in Washington by the federal government."

Apparently that includes gun-toting, suspected terrorists.

[Last modified March 14, 2005, 01:28:20]