WarSclerotic

Donald Trump, NRA agree on gun-control scrutiny for terrorist watch list, Washington Times,  Andrea Noble and S.A. Miller, June 20, 2016

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is introduced by National Rifle Association executive director Chris W. Cox (left) and NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre as he takes the stage to speak at the NRA convention on May 20 in Louisville

Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association smoothed over a hiccup in their alliance Sunday, agreeing that the government’s terrorist watch lists are unreliable and should not be used to revoke Second Amendment rights, a position also being taken by liberal-leaning civil liberties groups not usually allied with the NRA or Mr. Trump.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee and the NRA synchronized their views as the U.S. Senate prepared to vote on Democrat-backed legislation that would do just that. The bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California would ban firearm sales to people on a terrorist watch list or no-fly list. The bill is one of four gun control measures going before the Senate on Monday in response to the terrorist attack last week in Orlando.

All four measures — two Republican and two Democratic — are expected to fall short of the 60 votes needed to advance. But the Orlando bloodshed and fresh calls for more gun control laws from President Obama promised to keep the issue at the forefront in Washington and on the campaign trail.

“There is not a difference between what Mr. Trump is saying and what the NRA’s position is. That’s a media-created diversion there,” NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“The FBI should investigate every single person who’s on a terrorist watch list if they try to buy a gun. That’s what they’re doing now,” he said. “If there’s a reason to believe in probable cause that they’re engaged in terrorist activity, they ought to not only be prevented from getting a firearm; they ought to be arrested.”

Mr. Trump raised eyebrows among gun rights advocates when, in response to the Orlando massacre, he pledged to work with the NRA regarding gun sales to people on the government’s famously inaccurate no-fly list.

This entry was posted on June 20, 2016 at 7:48 PM and is filed under Donald Trump, Gun control, Islamic terrorism, NRA, Terrorism watch lists, U.S. Congress. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Donald Trump, Gun control, Islamic terrorism, NRA, Terrorism watch lists, U.S. Congress