Senate Democrats told House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday that they should follow the lead of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, who has indicated support for a Democratic plan to block people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns and explosives.
“Just two days ago, Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner for president, said anyone on terror watchlist should ‘absolutely’ not be allowed to buy guns,” Democrats wrote in their letter to the two congressional leaders.
Senate Democrats want Ryan, R-Wis., and McConnell, R-Ky., to “quickly schedule votes on their legislation, the ‘Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015.'”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., first introduced the legislation in February, but Democrats begin promoting it again last week in response to the Paris terrorist attacks, which involved both guns and explosives.
Most Democrats are opposed to Republican legislation aimed at preventing terrorism on U.S. soil by greatly increasing the scrutiny of incoming Syrian and Iraqi refugees. And they say their own bill to give the attorney general the power to deny explosives or gun licenses to individuals on the watch list who they deem to be a terrorism threat would be much more effective.
“There is no reason why suspected terrorists who we consider too dangerous to board airplanes should be able to walk into any gun store in the United States and purchase a firearm or an explosive for the purpose of carrying out a terrorist act,” Democrats wrote.
Gun rights advocacy groups, including the NRA, said the terror watch list erroneously includes many innocent people and should not be used to determine who can legally purchase a gun.
Democrats argue that more than 90 percent of people on the terrorism watch list have been able to pass background checks and purchase guns.
Trump told ABC News on Sunday that, “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,” from purchasing guns. Trump did not offer specific support for the Feinstein legislation.
But Trump also said if Paris gun laws were more lenient and more people were carrying guns, the terrorist attacks could have been “much different.”
