by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
In a move that many saw as an attempt by congressional Democrats to capitalize on the Orlando terror attack, legislation preventing people on terror watch lists from being able to purchase firearms ignited a fierce discussion that brought warnings from Second Amendment organizations about due process and timely appeals.
The attack in Orlando that claimed 49 lives and left 53 others injured, some seriously, was committed by a man who drove to the scene from his home in Florida.
According to CBS News, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) contended that so-called “no-fly, no-buy” legislation would be “the least we can do.”
Pelosi accused the Republican majority of being “a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association.”
And presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced in a tweet that he would be meeting with the NRA to talk about preventing gun sales to people on terror watch lists or no-fly lists.
The Capitol Hill fight brought quick reactions from the NRA and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action
NRA’s chief lobbyist, Chris Cox, executive director of the group’s Institute for Legislative Action, issued a statement noting, “We are happy to meet with Donald Trump. The NRA’s position on this issue has not changed.
“The NRA,” Cox said, “believes that terrorists should not be allowed to purchase or possess firearms, period. Anyone on a terror watch list who tries to buy a gun should be thoroughly investigated by the FBI and the sale delayed while the investigation is ongoing. If an investigation uncovers evidence of terrorist activity or involvement, the government should be allowed to immediately go to court, block the sale, and arrest the terrorist.
“At the same time,” he cautioned, “due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed. That has been the position of Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and a majority of the US Senate. Sadly, President Obama and his allies would prefer to play politics with this issue.”
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, was equally cautious in a statement to the press.
“Without proper protections for people to find out if they are put on the no fly list and a quick way to get off of it if wrongly put on it, we cannot support it,” Gottlieb said. “As currently written, it is a civil rights nightmare. It is an anti-Second Amendment bureaucrat’s dream come true.
“There are thousands of people wrongly on the no fly list that would lose their Second Amendment rights,” he asserted. “President Obama and Hillary Clinton and the gun prohibition lobby that supports their anti-rights agenda cannot be trusted with this kind of power.”
Gottlieb recalled that the late Sen. Edward Kennedy was once stopped from boarding an airplane. Kennedy’s dilemma was quickly resolved, but that likely would not be the case for an average citizen who suddenly finds his or her name on the list, without knowing why or how to get their name removed.
“If lawmakers can come up with a proposal that includes an ironclad mechanism for swift resolution of mistakes,” he stressed, “we would be willing to take a serious look at it. But it would have to zealously protect against civil rights violations, and there must be guarantees of due process, and the process should not cost honest citizens a penny.”
He said nobody wants terrorists to be able to get their hands on guns.
If someone on a terror watch list tries to buy a firearm,” Gottlieb said, “it needs to trigger an immediate investigation by the FBI. Preventing such transactions is in everyone’s best interests, but playing politics with civil rights is not.”
President Obama talked about reviving the ban on so-called “assault weapons” two days after the terror attack in which a US-born gunman called police during the shooting to profess his allegiance to ISIS. That man used a Sig Sauer semi-auto rifle that resembles an AR-15. He had reportedly purchased that rifle only days before the attack, but he cleared a background check despite the fact that he had been twice earlier on the FBI’s “terrorism” radar.
