Gun groups go on full alert over ‘No Fly, No Buy’

“#2A Supporters: Contact your lawmakers and tell them to oppose any new gun control measures!” tweeted the National Rifle Association.

“We need your voice! As soon as this afternoon or Friday, the United States Senate is expected to consider the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Bill. A number of anti-gun U.S. Senators will be proposing amendments that will have an adverse impact on your rights as a law-abiding American,” said the National Shooting Sports Foundation in a similar alert.

They added: “We are all united in wanting to stop terrorism. We must, however, oppose efforts that will do nothing to stop terrorist acts, but that will advance old and previously defeated gun-control measures under a new label.”

Republican leaders and the NRA have been ready to shake hands with President Obama and Democrats on a new gun deal targeting terrorists, but are now charging that liberals are playing politics on the issue to anger their supporters enough to vote in the fall elections.

Both sides are close to agreeing on a deal to keep weapons from those on terror watch lists, but the Democrats aren’t giving in to GOP demands to specifically guarantee due process rights to the list members.

“@POTUS, @HillaryClinton, & @SenFeinstein are playing politics. Should be putting safety of Americans & Constitution ahead of campaign ads,” the NRA tweeted with a reference to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate Democrat leading the gun talks.

At issue is whether those on the lists get a fair shot at using the legal process to get off. Republicans and even the media have said that putting people on a secret list, not telling them why they are on it, and blocking efforts to clear their name, violates the Fifth Amendment.

Feinstein and the Democrats are sticking to language in a deal that makes it hard for those on the list to get off. Republicans, led by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, want a legal process to fight being on the list.

“What Cornyn proposed that I supported was, ‘OK, you don’t get to buy a weapon if you are one of these lists, but you have a reasonable opportunity to go somewhere and defend your Constitutional right to bear arms,” said Sen. Jeff Sessions, a Judiciary Committee subcommittee chairman.

“I think that’s a sound policy and I think it deals with the Constitutional issue and national security issue,” he said.

NRA board member Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, said, “Nobody wants a terrorist to get a gun.” But, he added, “The Constitution is the Constitution and people have civil rights and you don’t sweep them away. We need to protect the American people which we can do without violating the Constitution.”

While the deal is still evolving, Cornyn would give federal law enforcement to deny a gun sale to somebody on the terror watch list for 72 hours. During that time they would have to have to make their case to a judge or the sale would be cleared.

Feinstein has several alternatives, but they are similar to one shot down in December. That included provision that Republicans could not agree to. Among them was giving the attorney general the authority to determine the list and allowing Justice to keep information about why somebody is on the list secret.

Politics also clouds a potential deal and for good reason. After the previous effort died last December, Democrats used the issue to bash Republicans running for reelection.

“One always wonders about the motives of liberal Democrats with long histories of wanting to take away every gun they can get at,” said Norquist. “They go after targets of opportunity and they exploit crimes and tragedies to push an agenda of gun control that they’ve had for decades. And it’s just sad that everytime something happens, they try to exploit it,” he said.

The NRA has moved quicker than in the past to make its case, though isn’t likely to propose their own solution because they are toxic to Democrats.

Then there is Donald Trump and his surprise bid to help cut a deal between the sides. One conservative suggested to Secrets that Trump ought to use the issue to blast both sides as an example of what’s wrong with Washington.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]