“Last week, our president stated that there are individuals who can’t get on planes, but they can go to a gun shop and buy a firearm there and he said ‘nothing we can do to stop them, ‘ but – and correct me if I’m wrong – the FBI is notified when someone on the terrorist watch list attempts to purchase a firearm, and a NICS [National Instant Criminal Background Check System] check is requested, and the FBI has multiple avenues that they can pursue”, Grassley said at the committee’s hearing on the oversight of the FBI.
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The system has grown so large and complex that Sen.
In his letter, Schiff voiced his support for the “no fly no buy” policies proposed by the president, which would prevent known or suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms or explosives.
Although the government does not release the exact number of watch lists or the specific criteria for getting on them, it is clear that they have exploded in numbers. By 2014, it had grown to about 64,000 people, Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said. The guidelines allow the administration to name individuals as representatives of terrorist groups they have no demonstrable connection to, or to name entire “categories” of people on to the no-fly list.
But because the investigation was closed, Mateen was able to buy weapons without attracting any federal attention.
“We want to give sufficient tools to authorities to keep us safe while at the same time building in safeguards”, said Bruce Hoffman, director of national security studies at Georgetown University. “But that doesn’t mean someone is, quote unquote, innocent”. How do you get placed on one of these watch lists, and what’s the objective? Of those, 244 people were identified as being on the Terrorist Watch List; 223 were approved and 21 were denied. The Terrorism Screening Database is the country’s central repository of foreign and domestic known and suspected terrorists.
More than 1.5 million names were added to the master list, which includes numerous subsets such as the no-fly list, between 2009 and 2014, according to an Associated Press investigation.
It receives names of suspected global terrorists from the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, which is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center in connection with the USA intelligence community and security agencies that have information on terrorists.
But not too long ago, it seemed insane that the U.S. was keeping a list of citizens who it could not charge with a crime but it could bar from flights, with limited avenues of appeal-a bit of post-9/11 panic that stood until the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the government in 2010 on behalf of several people who say they are blocked from flying for no good reason. Republicans pushed for their expanded use post-9/11.
Even the NRA says, “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”.
I agree with Clinton that since she is now under FBI investigation, accused of mishandling classified emails with national security implications, she should not be permitted to control guns or run for the most powerful leadership position in the world as commander in chief of the United States military and all its weaponry.
And a year ago, another federal judge ruled that the government’s lack of effective procedures for people to challenge their inclusion on the no-fly list was unconstitutional. The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit, is challenging the revisions as insufficient.
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“Are you on a government watch list?” asked Reporter Bradford Arick.
