The increasing number of mass shooting in the United States has alarmed a lot of citizens and they are now looking for someone to blame in how it has gotten this worse in the last few years. Most would have probably pointed their finger at Obama and how he has not really stepped up his campaign in ending gun related violence. Of course there is no single simple solution to the problems, and talks of stricter gun laws has become a very touchy subject which most politicians have been careful to address.

In a recent speech given by Obama just this week, it seems like the president is pointing a finger now at the Federal Bureau of Investigations and its lack of restrictions towards terrorist activities, including their procurement of firearms within the country. The president’s speech was prompted by the latest shooting in San Bernardino which claimed the lives of 14 people.

“And for those who are concerned about terrorism, some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can’t get on planes, but those same people who we don’t allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm, and there’s nothing that we can do to stop them. That’s a law that needs to be changed,” Obama had mentioned during the speech.

FBI Director, James Comey, however was pretty much surprised by the president’s statement and proclaimed that they do have some plans in place when someone form the terrorist watch list tries to purchase a gun. Comey had expressed his and the Bureau’s side on the matter during a meeting with the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

“There are a variety of things that we do when we are notified that someone on our known or suspected terrorist database is attempting to buy a firearm. The FBI is alerted when that is triggered, and then we do investigations,” Comey had revealed.

He further explains that usually the FBI looks for any disqualifiers for them to fail the buyer in the required background check, and if ever the transaction can’t be stopped, they then alert the agents assigned to the subject to investigate further.

According to the FBI, the no-fly list that the president had mentioned is only a small portion of a larger terrorist watchlist also known as the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). This list contains thousands of records that is updated daily and open to all law enforcement agencies. The list, as of September 2011, was revealed to contain about 420,000 names majority of which are “non-US person”.