Virginia Senator to Bring Back Expanded Background Check Bill

“It’s coming back,” said Virginia Senator Joe Manchin Tuesday about his bipartisan bill to expand background checks on gun sales, a bill which failed to pass on its first run through the Senate last month. [more]

HOUSTON - Members of the National Rifle Association were assured that they would never have to surrender their firearms. Along with this statement they were told that the fight against government gun control is far [more]

Senate Rejects Expanded Gun Background Checks

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans backed by a small band of rural-state Democrats scuttled the most far-reaching gun control legislation in two decades Wednesday, rejecting tighter background checks for buyers and a ban on assault weapons [more]

Day of Reckoning for Expanded Background Checks

D-Day: Today, consideration of the Manchin-Toomey background check proposal and a myriad other gun amendments, including a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips, will be the main event on Capitol Hill. The outcome of [more]

Deal Reached on Gun Background Check Bill

WASHINGTON - Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. announced that they have reached a compromise bill on Wednesday that expands background checks on gun purchases, and possibly paving the way for votes [more]

Both Gun Control Parties Make Public Appeal

WASHINGTON — Two of the loudest voices in the gun debate say it’s up to voters now to make their position known to Congress. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and National Rifle Associate Executive Vice President [more]

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Persons in Terrorist Watch List Denied Gun Purchases by Passage of Veteran Backed Bill

WASHINGTON – U.S. Federal Gun Laws have done a great job at preventing and denying gun purchases to those who are not eligible, under the Brady Bill and other laws, namely those who are:

Terrorist Watch List Background Check

Convicted Felons or those under indictment for a felony
Known fugitives from justice in any state
Individuals who were dishonorably discharged from military service.
Unlawful drug users and convicted drug addicts or dealers
Individuals who have ever been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or have been legally declared mentally incompetent
Illegal aliens, and those legal aliens who are admitted to the United States on a non immigrant visa, such as a temporary work permit or student visa
A person who has officially renounced their American citizenship.
Persons convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offences
Someone under certain domestic violence restraining orders

Fall into any of the mentioned situations and you will fail the background check required to purchase a firearm, but unfortunately being on the FBI’s terrorist watch list does not fail you from the background check.

A military veteran organization is lobbying to fix this oversight by reviving a long overdue bill – Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act. Under this law the FBI can now deny gun purchases to people in the watch list, closing what the group calls the “terror gap.”

“This is common-sense legislation that does not infringe on a gun-owner’s rights, and will protect our troops and our nation,” said Vet Voice Foundation in a press release. The group, founded by veteran and progressive activist Jon Soltz, recently formed a new working group to rally veterans and ramp up pressure on Congress to prohibit gun sales to people on the terrorist list.

The motivation behind the move is the continued threat to men and women in uniform, who have been targeted by shooting attacks over the past few years. In addition to shootings at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, that same year a military recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., was fired upon. Terrorist suspects also attempted to purchase weapons to attack Fort Dix, N.J., in 2007.

A 2011 report by the Government Accounting Office found that from February 2004 to February 2010, “individuals on the terrorist watch list were involved in firearm or explosives background checks 1,228 times; 1,119 (about 91%) of these transactions were allowed to proceed because no prohibiting information was found.”

Gun lobbyists, however, disagree. The National Rifle Association is adamantly opposed to the law. The group posted a fact sheet online in April 2011 saying that the bill was “aimed primarily at law-abiding American gun owners.” The NRA said that such gun owners could be in jeopardy of jail time if they were mistakenly or arbitrarily placed on the watch list. “Ninety-five percent of watch listed persons are already prohibited from acquiring firearms in the U.S., because they are not U.S. citizens or legal resident aliens,” they wrote.