WaPo: People on Terrorism Watch List Allowed to Buy Guns, Explosives

People on Terrorism Watch List Allowed to Buy Guns, Explosives

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 22, 2009; 5:30 PM

People named on the government's terrorist watch list have successfully purchased firearms hundreds of times since 2004 , government investigators reported yesterday. In one case, a known or suspected terrorist was able to buy explosives, the Government Accountability Office reported.

U.S. lawmakers requested the audit to show how under federal law, people on the terrorist watch list can be stopped from boarding airplanes but not from buying guns. Under federal law, licensed firearms dealers must request an FBI background check for buyers but cannot legally stop purchases solely because individuals are on the watch list. The study found that people on the list purchased guns 865 times -- out of 963 attempts -- over a five-year period ending in February....

....Citing a "terror gap," Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Robert C. Scott (D-Va.) released the study, and Lautenberg introduced legislation today to give the U.S. attorney general authority to stop the sale of guns or explosives to terrorists.

"The special interest gun lobby has so twisted our nation's laws that the rights of terrorists are placed above the safety of everyday Americans," Lautenberg said in a written statement, "The current law simply defies common sense."