Some on terror list can buy guns, and Dems try to capitalize

The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, 29, was not on any list when he purchased the weapons for the deadliest mass shooting in USA history, which left 49 people dead and 53 injured at a gay nightclub.

“It is very clear to me that when a person has to change magazines and can not fire so many bullets so quickly, people have a chance to escape”, said Amanda Wilcox, a volunteer for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, who said her daughter was killed by a shooter using a high-capacity magazine. Mateen was also killed in the Sunday morning shootings.

“They have to consider Orlando and think about what we could’ve done to save lives there”, said Bonta.

Senate Democrats say they will try forcing a vote on making it harder for suspected terrorists or people on the government’s terror watch lists to buy guns.

Omar Mateen, investigated twice by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was on the government’s terrorist watch list for 10 months before being removed.

The National Rifle Association raised concerns that the terror list legislation would lead to Americans wrongly placed on the watch list being denied their constitutional rights to due process.

“Having been connected to what used to be the worst mass shooting in America’s history and witnessing the devastation it caused across Virginia” said CSGV Virginia State Director Lori Haas, whose daughter was shot and injured in the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech University.

The military-style weapons were once illegal under the federal assault weapons ban, but the ban expired in 2004. Its long barrel generally makes it shoot more accurately, especially at great distances, and it tends to come with a high-capacity magazine, so critics see it as more lethal than smaller guns.

“Sometimes what gets lost in the semantics of this debate is the fact that these are firearms that were created to kill as many people as possible” as quickly as possible, he said.

The NRA lobbyist hit back at both Obama and Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton after she renewed her call for tougher gun controls, including a ban on assault weapons.

Q: Why can people on the terrorist watch list buy guns?

Other legislation advanced Tuesday would require background checks for ammunition purchases. But being a suspected or known terrorist is not one such category.

He also wants to force a vote on the so-called gun-show loophole, which can allow criminals to buy guns from unlicensed dealers without a background check. The bill included language that would have allowed people who believe they were wrongly placed on the terror suspect list from appealing to the Justice Department.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chief sponsor of legislation that Democrats are pushing following Orlando, got numbers in March from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative arm.

That rate was more than 95 percent a year ago, according to the data, which showed that between January 2015 and December “individuals on the terrorist watch list were involved in firearm-related background checks 244 times”.

Q: What would Feinstein’s bill do? Only one Democratic senator opposed it previous year. The transaction could be halted permanently if officials could persuade a judge to do so.

Democrats on a California legislative panel voted Tuesday to advance a dozen proposed gun control measures, including one that requires people to turn in or destroy magazines capable of holding more than 10 bullets.

Democrats said clever lawyers could easily delay court action for 72 hours, rendering the proposal toothless. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. “The bottom line is, we have to keep trying”.