WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Two New York Lawmakers are calling for federal gun laws to be tightened after a government report found that nearly three dozen people on an FBI watch list of known or suspected terrorists purchased firearms last year.
"I would support legislation to make it illegal for people on that list to buy guns," Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y. told United Press International.
The Government Accountability Office found this week that, "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."
As a result, their report went on, 35 individuals who were valid matches for the FBI's watch list of known or suspected terrorists were able to purchase firearms during a five-month period last year.
"It is absurd that the very same people not allowed to board a commercial aircraft can walk into nearly any gun store in America and purchase a firearm," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., in a reference to the no-fly and automatic selected lists maintained by the Transportation Security Administration.
The lists contain the names of thousands of people suspected of being terrorists, terrorist sympathizers or associates. They are among the 12 watch lists maintained by federal government agencies, according to the GAO.
Included in that dozen is the FBI's Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File, the watch list against which potential gun-buyers are checked as part of the background check process mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act.
Federal law defines a series of prohibited categories of people not allowed to receive or possess firearms, including convicted felons, illegal aliens and those who have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution. The FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System receives 8.5 million requests each year from licensed firearms dealers, and checks the name, date of birth, race and sex of would-be gun purchasers against a variety of databases to determine whether they fall into any prohibited categories.
But the GAO report points out that "under current law, inclusion on a terrorist watch list is not a standalone factor that would prohibit a person from receiving or possessing a firearm."
Thus, a hit on the watch list does not mean the transaction cannot go ahead.
Since February last year, under new procedures examined by the GAO, a watch-list hit does mean that the purchase is automatically delayed for the maximum time allowable under the Brady Act -- three days -- while FBI agents check for derogatory information not contained in the automated databases searched by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, for instance because it had not yet been entered.
The report found that in two cases, agents had been able to find additional information in time to stop the purchases.
However, the report also found that to protect the privacy of gun purchasers -- even those who are on the watch list -- only the information necessary to determine whether the would-be buyer falls into a prohibited category is shared with FBI field agents and counter-terrorist specialists. Other information, for instance the would-be purchasers address, is not shared unless the purchase is deemed illegal.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the senior Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called it "alarming that 3 1/2 after the Sept. 11 attacks, loopholes such as these still exist in our gun laws."
Both McCarthy and King have introduced bills this week in response to the report. Legislation is also being weighed in the Senate.
King's bill would require information about completed gun purchases by people on the watch list, including their address and the type and number of firearms purchased, be passed to FBI counter-terrorism agents.
At the moment, in order to prevent preserved purchase records from becoming an effective national gun-owner registry, Justice Department policy requires the records of lawfully completed transactions to be destroyed within 24 hours.
The bill proposed by McCarthy, whose husband was killed by the Long Island Rail Road rampage shooter in 1993, goes a lot further. It would make it illegal for people on the no-fly list to purchase firearms.
"We need a 'no-buy' list," said Kristen Rand, legislative director of the Violence Policy Center, a gun control lobby group. "We should not be allowing members of terrorist organizations to purchase firearms."
Rand said that -- even before this week's GAO report -- there were many documented instances of terrorists, including in one case an associate of Osama bin Laden, buying guns. "This is not a hypothetical problem," she said.
Although King says he supports legislation to outlaw purchases by known or suspected terrorists, he told UPI he has reservations about using the no-fly list.
"We've got to do this smart," he said, adding, "We know there are problems with that list" -- a reference to the experience of dozens of individuals, including members of Congress, repeatedly misidentified and denied the right to fly.
McCarthy said the reason she chose the no-fly list was that there was an established appeals mechanism for people added to it in error.
"Any law-abiding citizen wrongly placed on the list will be able to follow the (Transportation Security Administration's) procedure for quick removal ... and be able to complete their firearm purchase," she said.
"There's got to be a right to appeal," against being denied a purchase, agreed King, but he said he believed the FBI watch list was "a better list."
But even with a right of appeal, any tightening of the law is likely to arouse the opposition of the powerful gun-rights lobby.
Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association, told UPI "The current system is working effectively."
But he said the NRA opposed terrorists getting access to firearms, and promised they would review "any proposals from the Justice Department or Capitol Hill, and weigh them against our core commitment to the rights of law-abiding Americans" to own guns.
King acknowledged the power of the NRA, but said the public was very attuned to the dangers faced by terrorism.
"This is one instance where the gun lobby could loose," he said.
King suggested the lobby's supporters might not support moves by their leaders to block such a law. "They're overlapping constituencies," he said of those who support gun rights and those who favor tough measures against terrorists.
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