Thread: NRA Backs Proposal to Delay Gun Sales to Those on Terror Watch list

NRA Backs Proposal to Delay Gun Sales to Those on Terror Watch List


Lawmakers Set for New Showdown on Guns

Senate to vote on four separate gun measures; Lynch says FBI to release only partial 911 transcript from Orlando gunman

ENLARGE
AR-15 semi-automatic guns for sale at Action Target on Friday in Springville, Utah.PHOTO: GEORGE FREY/GETTY IMAGES

By GARY FIELDS
Updated June 19, 2016 6:07 p.m. ET

The National Rifle Association said Sunday it backs a proposal to delay a gun sale to anyone on a terror watch list to give the government a chance to prove its case.

The proposal, introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas), would give federal officials three days to show a judge there is probable cause to block someone on the lists from purchasing a firearm.

Speaking on Fox News, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Justice Department supports the ability to stop a gun sale and to make its case in a way that doesn’t compromise sensitive and classified information “in the adjudication of an appeal.”

She also said the Federal Bureau of Investigation plans to release Monday a partial transcript of the 911 calls from gunman inside the nightclub in Orlando, Fla., where 49 victims were killed last week. But she said the transcript won’t include what he said about his support for Islamic State.

“What we’re not going to do is further proclaim this individual’s pledges of allegiance to terrorist groups and further his propaganda,” she said on NBC Sunday. “We will hear him talk about some of those things, but we’re not going to hear him make his ascertains of allegiance and that.”

The Justice Department didn’t have an immediate answer when asked for further clarification about what exactly it would include about what Mateen said about terror or Islamic State.

NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre said Sunday the answer to dealing with people on the terror watch list is to back Mr. Cornyn’s measure. The three-day delay “gives law enforcement the opportunity to go before a judge and prove their case,” he said on CBS.

“It provides due process for the good people and it gives law enforcement the ability where they can conduct these investigations and it won’t blow what they are doing,” Mr. LaPierre said.

After the June 12 Orlando mass shooting, which left 49 victims and the shooter dead, Democrats have pushed for a number of gun restrictions that previously failed to garner enough support in the Senate.

The latest proposals, including expanding background checks to gun shows, have sparked debate about whether they would have stopped the incidents in Orlando or San Bernardino,

Calif., where 14 people were killed in a terrorist attack last December. But restricting gun ownership for people on terror watch lists appears to be one area of some agreement.
Attorney General Lynch said there might be cases where authorities would need more than the 72 hours.

“I think the American people deserve us to take the greatest amount of time and scrutiny that we can in the important decision of whether or not someone who's been implicated on this matter should, in fact, be able to buy a firearm,” she said. “But of course there has to be a redress.

There has to be a way for people to challenge it.”

Donald Trump, the GOP’s presumptive Republican nominee for president, has said no one on a terror watch list should be allowed to get a firearm. The NRA has endorsed Mr. Trump, but Mr. LaPierre wasn’t asked about that Sunday.
Mr. Trump, speaking by phone on CBS, said, “I’m working with the NRA.” He didn’t specify what positions the two sides had laid out.

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said what Ms. Lynch supported was “pretty close to where I’m comfortable being.”

Mr. Sessions, also speaking on Fox News, said he agreed there should be a delay with the affected person having the right to due process.

“You have a chance for the Justice Department to prove this person shouldn’t be able to execute a constitutional right” to own a gun, he said.

Mr. Sessions added the deliberation should be done without having to reveal too much internal data that could compromise intelligence sources.

The Senate will vote Monday on four measures, two by Democrats and two by Republicans, aimed at halting or slowing gun purchases by people on the terror watch lists and expanding background checks on purchases.

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2013 and 2014 and was placed on the terror watch list, but was removed when authorities couldn’t find evidence to continue the investigations.

One opportunity to stop Mr. Mateen before his attack was limited, Ms. Lynch said, because authorities didn’t have enough information. A gun shop owner said he had called the FBI to report suspicious behavior by a man unsuccessfully trying to buy body armor and ammunition.

“Because no purchase was made, no identification was made,” Ms. Lynch said on CNN.

Mr. Sessions also said the “normal flow” of immigration from certain countries should be curtailed significantly “until we get a good database” of potential terrorists. Countries that would be included in this are Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, from which Mr. Mateen’s parents immigrated, he said.

“You don’t have a constitutional right to come to America,” Mr. Sessions said.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/nra-back...ist-1466354619

Mr. Sessions also said the “normal flow” of immigration from certain countries should be curtailed significantly “until we get a good database” of potential terrorists. Countries that would be included in this are Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, from which Mr. Mateen’s parents immigrated, he said.

“You don’t have a constitutional right to come to America,” Mr. Sessions said.

Exactly. Thank you Jeff Sessions.

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