PA Bill Number: HB2311
Title: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program.
Description: Establishing the School Mental Health Screening Grant and Development Program. ...
Last Action: Laid on the table
Last Action Date: Sep 23, 2024
Democrats: No-Fly, No-Buy Gun Bill Could Have Prevented Orlando Killings :: 06/16/2016
The massacre at a gay nightclub that left at least 50 people dead on Sunday morning has reignited the debate in Congress over legislation that would prevent people on the federal terrorist no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
Omar Mateen, the alleged gunman who stormed into Pulse, a club in Orlando, Florida, and opened fire with an assault rifle, had twice been under federal investigation for possible ties to terrorism. He was eventually taken off the FBI's watch list after it was determined he had broken no laws.
But at no time – even when he was included on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Database – would Mateen have been barred from buying a gun.
Last December, after a couple inspired by Islamic State group ideology killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, Democrats on Capitol Hill pushed legislation that would prohibit anyone on the no-fly list from purchasing firearms.
Republicans blocked the bill, on the grounds that those on no-fly lists are merely under suspicion and haven't been accused or convicted of crimes.
After the slaughter in Orlando, the proposal was among the first mentioned by Congressional Democrats and Hillary Clinton, their party's presumptive presidential nominee.
"The legislation Republicans blocked, the so-called no-fly list [loophole], would have prevented suspected terrorists from buying guns," Clinton said Monday on NBC. "It allows the FBI and the attorney general from preventing a suspected terrorist from doing that. It would happen on a case-by-case basis."
The former secretary of state, who also called for the reinstatement of an expired ban on assault weapons, said the National Rifle Association – arguably the nation's most powerful lobbying organization – has cowed elected officials into inaction on laws that would prevent dangerous people from getting their hands on firearms.
"We cannot fall into the trap set by the gun lobby that says if you can't stop every shooting and every incident you should not try to stop any," she said.
Clinton's call echoed those in Congress who said they would push to bring the no-fly list loophole bill up for a vote again.
"Tomorrow, when we return to Washington, we should have a moment of silence for the victims – immediately followed by a vote to close the loophole that allows people on the terror watch list to buy assault rifles – or any weapon," said Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., in a statement Sunday. "This isn't politics; it's common sense."
"In the weeks to come, we should not be afraid to ask why, when an AR-15 assault rifle is the one thing that's common to Orlando, San Bernardino and Newtown, we allow these deadly weapons to be freely available?" Deutch said. "And why every gun purchaser isn't subject to a background check? And why the mental health crisis isn't urgently addressed?"
Republicans opposed to the legislation say using the list for gun background checks would unfairly punish law-law abiding citizens, since the list includes those for whom investigators have not been able to find sufficient evidence for arrest or prosecution.
"The majority of the people on the no-fly list are oftentimes people that just basically have the same name as somebody else, who doesn't belong on the no-fly list," Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., then a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said on CNN in December. "Former Sen. Ted Kennedy once said he was on a no-fly list. There are journalists on the no-fly list."
Beyond the terrorist watch list bill, Democrats used Sunday's shootings to call again for stronger gun-safety laws.
In his statement, Deutch ticked off the other anti-gun violence measures on Democrats' wish list, including expanding background checks for those who want to buy a gun. At the same time, polls show the vast majority of Americans support universal background checks for gun buyers.
And Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., planned to roll out a bill that would block anyone convicted of a hate crime from buying a gun.
"If you have proven you will commit criminal acts based on hate, you absolutely should not have access to a gun. It's common sense," Senator Casey said. "It is time we as members of Congress do something. If you are a member of Congress and you say you care about security then you have to take steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands and ensure our law enforcement has the resources needed to keep communities safe."
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has been a leading advocate of tightening gun control laws since 26 people, including 20 young children, were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his home state in 2012. On Sunday, Murphy said members of Congress who have failed to act share the blame for the deaths of the victims Sunday, and the the thousands of others killed by guns every year.
"The phenomenon of near constant mass shootings happens only in America – nowhere else," Murphy said in a statement. "Congress has become complicit in these murders by its total, unconscionable, deafening silence. This doesn't have to happen, but his epidemic will continue without end if Congress continues to sit on its hands and do nothing."
