A Republican senator called Monday for his colleagues to vote for his “no fly, no buy” legislation as the Democratic alternative would potentially violate law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights and “would not be as tough on the terrorist as mine would be.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said on the Senate floor he was concerned that the amendment proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., would violate the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens by referring to a “secret” watch list maintained by the government to deny the ability to buy a firearm “without due process of law.”
“This is really surreal to me. My colleagues want to make this about gun control when what we should be making this about is the fight against Islamic extremism that is the root cause for what happened in Orlando,” said Cornyn. He added that his recommendations would force the government to make a case before a judge that there is sufficient evidence to warrant denying a person’s gun rights.
“You can’t redact away the reality that a hate-filled killer pledged allegiance to a terrorist organization before killing 49 Americans,” he added, referring to the release of the full 911 call made by the shooter after the FBI faced heavy criticism for releasing a redacted version earlier.
“I still believe that the [Obama] administration’s, one of their goals, is to avoid any discussion about their failed strategy to combat radical Islamic terrorism either abroad or here at home.”
Cornyn said the SHIELD Act, which he is sponsoring with the support of the National Rifle Association, would “go further” than the Feinstein amendment in providing law enforcement additional resources to find and apprehend suspected terrorists. His version would give the government 72 hours to make a case against someone on the list owning a gun, while Feinstein’s would automatically ban firearms for people on a federal list.
“If they are too dangerous to buy a firearm, they are too dangerous to be on the street,” Cornyn said.
Feinstein responded to her colleagues critiques by saying that her bill would have prevented the Orlando shooting by denying him a firearm, but Cornyn said he was skeptical by arguing the assailant was already working as an armed security guard and had been cleared off the watch list by the FBI.
