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McCain's Silence On A 'Terror Gap'

Saturday 23 August 2008

by: Mark Hosenball  |  Newsweek

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John McCain refuses to state his position on limiting gun sales to people on terrorist watch lists. (Photo: deviantart.com)

    Senator John McCain portrays himself as a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights. But does that extend to gun rights for suspected terrorists? His campaign won't say where he stands on a bill to eliminate a gun-control loophole that even the Bush administration wants closed: a gap in federal law that inhibits the government from stopping people on terrorist watch lists from buying guns. The bill was inspired by an official audit covering a five-month period in 2004 which found that, because of the loophole, the Feds had to greenlight 35 out of 44 cases where a gun buyer was on a terrorist watch list. One group opposed to closing the loophole is the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun manufacturers' trade association. Until this spring, one of its congressional lobbyists was Randy Scheunemann, now a top McCain campaign adviser on foreign policy.

    Last year the Justice Department, with White House approval, sent a bill to Congress that would close the loophole by giving the attorney general power to block gun sales to those who are identified via instant background checks as people on such watch lists. As a safeguard, the Bush bill would allow an alleged terrorist to go to court to challenge a gun ban. But the proposal has made little progress in the face of opposition from gun enthusiasts. Ted Novin, spokesman for the NSSF, says it opposes plugging what supporters of the bill call a "terror gap" because it denies "due process" to gun buyers. "Anyone can be put on this list," he says.

    Registration documents filed by Scheunemann's company, Orion Strategies, list the terror-gap bill as one of its specific lobbying objectives, and the registrations listed Scheunemann as a lobbyist until he took a leave. McCain's campaign refused to answer questions about whether the senator supports or opposes the White House plan to close the loophole, and it also declined to say if Scheunemann had ever lobbied McCain on gun-control bills. "Randy Scheunemann is a foreign-policy adviser to Senator McCain, and he is on leave from Orion Strategies. We have no further comment," says Jill Hazelbaker, a campaign spokeswoman.

  

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Comments

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There is the flawed

 Sun, 08/24/2008 - 18:48 — Anonymous (not verified)
There is the flawed assumption that the government in general and this administration wants to wage a "war" on terrorism and therefore should make it difficult for them to obtain guns. The USA is the largest supplier of weapons to the world and does not care if it is going to a repressive dictatorship or terrorists like the Contras, so long as there are profits to be made. It is called a free market by the amoral capitalists who believe the ends always justify the means. Men were able to commander multiple jet planes and turn them into very effective weapons and all they needed were box cutters and the inadequate airplane security being maintained by airlines who did not want to spend the money and a government that did not want to force them to upgrade their planes. We now live with ridiculous airport security measures as we over react to the airlines' and our governments failures over a period of decades to put into place even minimal security. If multiple people on the FBI watch list can take lessons on how to fly a jet plane and are ignored for a period of years, why should anyone believe that changing the law is really going to make it impossible for a terrorist to obtain a gun. All they need to do is respond to any ad by a private party wishing to sell their firearms or have a sympathetic person not on the watch list go buy a "hunting" rifle. The gun manufacturers have done a great dob of preventing any restrictions on the sale of assault rifles to civilians. Why not address the problem at its source? Of course if you really wanted to reduce unnecessary deaths of Americans you would start with the drug industry, the gun industry, the auto industry, the chemical industry, and the healthcare industry. More Americans die every day as a result of corporate free market actions to maximize profits at any price than died on 9-11-2001 in the Trade Towers complex. Unfortunately we prefer following the lead of a famous draft dodger, John Wayne, and just find someone blame and "fix" the situation with a bullet. But that only works in the movies. It is just too bad they so many Americans, like the former President, Ronald Reagan, confuse the myths of the movies with reality.

Don't hold your breath

 Sun, 08/24/2008 - 22:15 — Tom Camfield (not verified)
Don't hold your breath waiting for an intelligent answer on anything from John McCain. Remember, he graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy . . . and his mind has atrophied considerably since then. If he does respond extemporaneously on this issue, expect something terse and simplistic, shallow and trite. Maybe he'll even tell us still one more time about how he will pursue Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. Meanwhile,I'm sure his speech-writers are feverishly working on some meaningful statement about gun control that he can memorize (and remember) for use in the near future.

There is no good reason not

 Sun, 08/24/2008 - 22:52 — Anonymous (not verified)
There is no good reason not to sell guns to those on the terrorist watch list. This list is ridiculous we all know that 99.9% of the people on this list aren't even remotely affiliated with terrorism so why should they lose their constitutional right. How long will it be before we are all on this list and the government tells us we are no longer guaranteed our rights, and have no recourse to fight our status. People are already losing their jobs and being harassed over this farce.

Once again we see the

 Sun, 08/24/2008 - 23:42 — Anonymous (not verified)
Once again we see the exceptional power of the NRA and its influence in America and virtually all politicians cower in fear of this over zealous organization. How is it possible to ignore any and all potential threats to the citizens of America (i.e. the ability of individuals ON THE TERRORIST WATCH LIST) in order to subvert ANY restriction on gun sales? Why have the watch list at all? Why have any semblance of a civilized society? John McCain should be ashamed for not having the courage to stand up and do the right thing. This is not the action we should demand from a so-called American hero!

So someone on the terrorist

 Sun, 08/24/2008 - 23:51 — Anonymous (not verified)
So someone on the terrorist watch list can't fly but can buy a gun. Woweee. That shows how ridiculous the US government can be.

There is the flawed

 Mon, 08/25/2008 - 13:47 — radline9 (not verified)
There is the flawed assumption - agree completely

This may be what we need. I

 Mon, 08/25/2008 - 17:54 — Josh (not verified)
This may be what we need. I don't think you can otherwise challenge being listed on the terrorist watch list, so if this passes, could this be the method to clear your name of that list?

Maybe every one of the

 Mon, 08/25/2008 - 19:56 — Anonymous (not verified)
Maybe every one of the commentators here should attempt to buy a gun as soon as this passes. My bet is not one of us will be able to. Why? Because commenting here is one excellent route to getting on that list. Another is to get behind in child support. A major agenda for the government's TWL is simply to catch dead-broke dads, the first "dangerous" group to be put on the list en masse.