Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Thursday it’s “ridiculous” to argue that people’s Fifth Amendment rights would be violated by legislation barring suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms, and said that argument is a “red herring.”
A shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., which claimed the lives of 49 people plus the shooter, has renewed support in Congress for legislation that would bar people who appear on the government’s terrorist watch list from purchasing a firearm. The watch list is a secretive database established in 2003 under the Bush administration, and includes people suspected, but not convicted, of terrorism.
Opponents of the proposal, including the NRA, argue the measure could violate the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, which requires “due process of law,” and says no one can be held to answer for a crime “unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury.”
Such concerns, according to Murphy, are “ridiculous.”
“The fact of the matter is that there hasn’t been a single Republican coming onto the floor to protest the lack of due process for individuals who are on the terrorist watch list who can’t fly on planes,” he said, after referring to the Fifth Amendment argument as a “red herring.”
“We all accept that that’s an important protection that individuals who are suspected of being connected with terrorists shouldn’t fly a plane. Well, they should not be able to buy a powerful firearm that we now know is capable of killing 50 people,” he said on MSNBC.
“The NRA does not want any of this to happen because they are dead set against anything that would make this country safer at the expense of the gun industry,” he added.
Murphy is not alone in downplaying concerns over whether the proposed legislation could mean due process goes by the wayside.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., complained Thursday morning that due process is “killing us.”
“The problem we have, and really the firewall we have right now, is due process. It’s all due process,” he said Thursday on MSNBC.
“[C]an’t we say that if a person is under suspicion, there should be a five-year period of time that we have to see if good behavior, if this person continues the same traits, maybe we can come to that type of agreement?” he asked. “But due process is what’s killing us right now.”
The legislation currently being championed by Murphy and Manchin would apply to not just those who’re are currently listed on the government’s terror database, but also anyone who has been on it in the past five years.
