NRA not budging on no-fly list gun restrictions

  • 16/06/2016
Houston residents inspecting weapons at an NRA meeting in Houston, Texas (Reuters)
Houston residents inspecting weapons at an NRA meeting in Houston, Texas (Reuters)

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) has announced it still supports the rights of people on terror watch lists to buy firearms.

That's despite a call from Donald Trump to discuss possible restrictions. 

The Republican presumptive nominee for this year's presidential election announced his desire to meet with the NRA on the issue following the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida that left 50 people dead (49 victims and gunman Omar Mateen).

"We are happy to meet with Donald Trump. The NRA's position on this issue has not changed," the NRA says on its website.

"Due process protections should be put in place that allow law-abiding Americans who are wrongly put on a watch list to be removed ... sadly, President Obama and his allies would prefer to play politics with this issue."

The NRA insists on its Twitter account that "restrictions like bans on gun purchases by people on 'watch lists' are ineffective, unconstitutional, or both"; however, it also concedes that guns should not be sold to proven terrorists.

The organisation's Twitter account is also instructing supporters to urgently petition lawmakers to oppose any potential new gun control measures, and linking to an editorial arguing that people on terror watch lists should be allowed to buy guns.

In December 2015, President Obama tried to have legislation passed that would block people on a terror watch list from flying planes to or from the US to buy firearms.

Republicans -- with the backing of the NRA -- blocked the debate on the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act.

"What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security," a frustrated President Obama stated at the time.

"These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism, they wind up on the no-fly list, there's no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion, and now they're having their Second Amendment rights being impeded upon," argued Senator Marco Rubio.

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