Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will meet with the National Rifle Association to discuss banning individuals on the federal government’s terrorist watch list from purchasing firearms.
“I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns,” the presumptive GOP nominee for president tweeted.
Trump didn’t disclose if he supports any measures before Congress, namely an outright ban advanced by Senator Dianne Feinstein and an alternative from Senator John Cornyn. Feinstein’s language would allow the federal government to prevent anyone on the list from purchasing a gun and the prospective buyer to challenge the denial of sale in court. Cornyn’s legislation would block a gun sale to a person on the list for 72 hours while the government was given the opportunity to find probable cause the would-be buyer was engaged in plotting terrorism.
A spokesperson for Trump didn’t respond to a request for comment about where the candidate was leaning.
Trump did say in November after the Paris attacks that he would back a ban of some sort, but he included a person on the watch list and an “enemy of the state”—quite different standards—in the same thought. “If somebody is on a watch list and an enemy of state and we know it’s an enemy of state, I would keep them away, absolutely,” he told ABC’s George Stephanopolous.
The NRA is unambiguous. In a statement, the head of the organization’s lobbying arm, Christopher Cox, said the NRA’s position on this issue “has not changed,” but it was still “happy” to meet with the candidate. Cox indicated a preference for Cornyn’s thinking.
“Anyone on a terror watchlist 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, due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watchlist to be removed,” Cox said. “That has been the position of Sen. John Cornyn and a majority of the U.S. Senate.”
Cornyn’s measure received 55 votes in a December vote, but under Senate rules, it needed 60 to advance.
Trump’s meeting with the NRA is his latest response to the Orlando terrorist attack that took 49 lives last weekend. On Monday, he tied the shooting to broader issues in the Muslim world, saying the United States has to “stop the tremendous flow of Syrian refugees” here and “be very strong in terms of looking at the mosques” to combat terrorism.
