Anti-gun testimony tied to ‘car bomber’
New York City officials on May 5 seized on the attempted car-bomb terror attack in Times Square to urge Congress to enact anti-gun legislation under the guise of tightening counterterrorism efforts.
In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called on lawmakers to close two so-called loopholes, one that allows individuals on the federal government’s terrorism watch list buy firearms and explosives, and one that allows private firearms sales between individuals without a background check.
Bloomberg’s Capitol Hill appearance had been scheduled before May 1 weekend’s failed attack, but the incident, in which Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen, is alleged to have tried to detonate a crude car bomb in Times Square, gave the mayor’s cause a new springboard.
The investigation into Shahzad’s background had revealed that he purchased the vehicle used to assemble the explosive device left in Times Square from a private individual, and that he had been allowed to purchase a rifle from a Connecticut dealer, passing the NICS check.
Bloomberg (I) pointed to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showing that individuals on the terrorist watch list were able to buy firearms and explosives from licensed U.S. dealers 1,119 times over the past six years.
“That is a serious and dangerous breach of national security,” Bloomberg testified, according to the Washington Post. The FBI should have the authority to block such sales, “but right now, they don’t,” he said. “It is time to close this ‘terror gap’ in our gun laws.”
Also testifying at the hearing, which was scheduled long before the May 1 attempted car bombing in Times Square, were New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Rep. Peter T. King (R-NY)—both sponsors of bills in C ongress designed to prohibit gun sales to people on the government’s terrorist watch list—and senior officials from the FBI, GAO and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Speaking against the proposed legislation at the hearing was Aaron Titus, privacy director of a Washington-based group called the Liberty Coalition. He said the group “takes no official position on ‘gun control’ per se,” but that “we are very alarmed at legislative attempts, though well-intentioned, which strip away individual constitutional protections.”
He said in prepared testimony that the bills in question “strip citizens of their enumerated constitutional right to bear arms without any meaningful due process and create a national firearms registry.”
The Hill reported that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was unsure on May 5 whether the Obama administration would push for legislation to close the loophole.
Despite the timeliness of the hearing, gun-rights supporters said the terrorism watch list should not be used as a gun-control database, The Hill reported.
“The problem I have is that (the) watch list, when you look at the numbers, has so many problems with it that I think it’s not appropriate to go down the road that we’re going because a constitutional right is involved,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Bloomberg during questioning.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) strongly opposes the proposed changes, claiming that the terrorism watch list is full of errors.
Andrew Arulanandam, NRA’s director of public affairs, pointed to the well-publicized 2004 incident in which the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) was temporarily prevented from boarding a flight because his name was mistakenly on the list.
“There are innocent people who are not terrorists whose names are on the list,” Arulanandam said in an interview. “It is wrong to deny law-abiding people a constitutional right if they are innocent.”
Comment on The Hill report on the hearing on its website was split on the terrorism watch list proposal.
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