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More than 800 gun buyers on terrorist list

Published June 23rd, 2009 | 4 Comments

WASHINGTON - More than 800 gun purchases were approved after background checks in the last five years even though the buyers' names were on the government's terrorist watch list, investigators said Monday.

Being on the watch list is not among the nine factors, such as a felony conviction, that disqualify someone from buying a gun under federal law. More than 900 background checks between February 2004 and February 2009 turned up names on the watch list, and all but 98 were allowed to go through.

The watch list — maintained by the FBI and used by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies — is meant to identify known or suspected terrorists. However, the list has drawn criticism over the years for mistakes that have led to questioning and searches of innocent people.

The Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, provided the updated statistics in a new report. The GAO issued a report on the watch-list loophole in 2005, but no changes have been made to the law.

"The current law simply defies common sense," Sen. Frank Lautenberg said in a statement Monday.

Lautenberg, D-N.J., has been calling for years to close the "terror gap" in the gun law and introduced legislation Monday to address this concern. "Known and suspected terrorists are exploiting a major loophole in our law, threatening our families and our communities," he said.

In 2007, the Justice Department supported legislation that would address the gap, but Congress did not act on it.

The Justice Department had no immediate comment Monday on the GAO findings.

The top lobbyist for the National Rifle Association said the terrorist watch list has names of people who should not be on the list.

"Law-abiding Americans should not be treated like terrorists," the NRA's Chris Cox said. "To deny law-abiding people due process and their Second Amendment rights based on a secret list is not how we do things in America."

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Those lists are garbage! Babies have been denied flights due to inaccurate "Watch Lists". People should be informed if and why they are on any watch lists, especially if they are US Citizens. It is illegal for the government to maintain any type of records or lists unless it is part of a criminal investigation and requires a judicial warrant.

Chuck Riley | 6/23/2009 - 9:09 PM - ( Comment

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The terror watch list was for people who bought Citgo gas instead of exxon.

Diffident Dissident | 6/23/2009 - 8:47 PM - ( Comment

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Oh I am sure I am on those lists, but it doesn't affect my gun buying at all. Notice that they can not yet deny you a gun because you are on the list, this article is about them saying they want to be able to deny you your constitutional rights without due process of law.

Jeremiah Jones | 6/23/2009 - 5:41 PM - ( Comment

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How many people are on this list anyway? We have no organized terror attacks, there are not even a dozen terrorists in the US. This absurd list, which has had Senator Ted Kennedy on it, and still holds singer Cat Stevens on it for no reason, needs to be tossed out. In 8 years, not one terrorist has been caught from this list, but hundreds of thousands of people have had suspicion cast upon them and rights denied because of it. It is nothing more than a tool of oppression maintained by a police state in the making.

Do these lists work at all? German authorities collected and carefully analysed data on over 8 million people in Germany. They were categorised according to if they were male, aged 18 to 40; current or former student; Muslim; legally resident in Germany; and originating from one of 26 Islamic countries. Then they were sorted into three further categories: potential to carry out a terrorist attack (such as having pilot's training); familiarity with locations that could be targets (people working in airports, nuclear power plants, chemical plants, the railroad, labs and other research institutes); and studying the German language at the Goethe Institute. Authorities then reduced the 8 million down to 1689 individuals, who were then investigated, one by one. Giovanni Capoccia, an Oxford-based political scientist who analysed this case, reported that NOT ONE of them turned out to be a threat.

On the other hand, 100% of the actual Islamic terrorists that were arrested in Germany through other investigations were not on the official terrorist watch list and did not fit the profile.

Just think about that for a bit and ask yourself what the real purpose is of these lists.

Jeremiah Jones | 6/23/2009 - 1:38 PM - ( Comment

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