247 On U.S. Terror Watch List Bought Guns In 2010 - ABC News
By JASON RYAN
April 28, 2011More than 200 individuals who were on the federal terrorism watch list passed background checks and were allowed to buy guns in 2010, according to a new government review.
A review by the Government Accountability Office determined that 247 people on the watch list bought guns last year, and also showed that between 2004 and 2009, more than nine out of ten individuals on the list who tried to buy guns succeeded.
"It defies common sense," said Sen. Lautenberg, D.-New Jersey, who requested the GAO report, "that people on the terror watch list continue to be cleared to buy weapons legally in the United States."
Current federal law does not prohibit people on the terrorist watch lists from purchasing guns unless there is a prohibiting factor, such as being a fugitive, a felon, renouncing U.S. citizenship or suffering mental impairment. Sen. Lautenberg has introduced legislation that would close this loophole and prevent known or suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms. [...]
A fine expenditure of taxpayer dollars (ahem, if you have a grain of salt, take it with that :)), and at the same time I'd expect that part of why they don't prevent more purchases is because that would alert the buyer to being on the terror watch list, not information I'd expect Homeland Security would want to broadcast too far and wide.
Plus, if the suspects don't have guns how will they do anything terrory? (BTW, is it common for true terrorists to buy guns through traceable sources and fill out all their paperwork? It might be for all I know but it seems kinda... well, dumb.)
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