Menino: Stop Terror List Suspects from Buying Weapons
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wants to know how one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was able to get a weapon, despite being on a federal terror watch list.
“Right now there are thousands of people on terror watch lists who are considered too dangerous to fly on a plane, but when it comes to buying an assault weapon — no problem. It’s crazy,” said Menino to the Boston Herald.
Menino, one of the co-founders of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said there are glaring loopholes in our federal gun laws, calling it the “Terror Gap”, which enabled Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to get his hands on weapons. Menino said current loopholes allow individuals on terror watch lists to pass background checks to purchase guns legally.
But some detractors do point out that Tsarnaev did not purchase weapons legally, so it doesn’t matter if he was on a list or not.
According to the Government Accountability Office, individuals on terror watch lists tried to buy guns and explosives 1,453 times between Feb. ’04 and Dec. ’10. And a staggering 91 percent of the time, or 1,321 occasions – the FBI could not block gun or explosives being sold to suspected terrorists.