2,000 suspected terrorists legally bought guns in US: Report
More than two thousand terror suspects designated as potential terrorists by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have legally purchased weapons in the country, according to a government report.
According to a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), between 2004 and 2014, suspected terrorists on the FBI's consolidated watch list tried to obtain guns from American dealers for a total of 2,233 times, and succeeded in 2,043 of those cases, a whopping 91 percent success.
GAO notes that the total figure might be higher as a programming error on FBI’s part has affected the overall data.
As the report suggests, the year 2007 has seen the most number of successful purchases with over 250 cases, while the year 2004 stands at the opposite end with 50 purchases.
The report notes that US law bans felons, fugitives, drug addicts and domestic abusers from buying weapons, while "membership in a terrorist organization does not prohibit a person from possessing firearms or explosives under current federal law."
US lawmakers have been actively trying to curb the trend by introducing bills to toughen up gun control, but those efforts have led to nowhere due to strong opposition by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and their allies in Congress.
The "Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2015," for instance was brought up by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republican Representative Peter T. King in a bid to specifically stop several hundreds of gun purchases by potential terrorists each year.
But the bill faced vehement opposition by the NRA, who argues "prohibiting the possession of firearms doesn’t stop criminals from illegally acquiring them," and that the bills were "sponsored by gun control extremists."
The FBI watch list has faced fierce criticism by its opponents who believe it has ballooned in size to only include people who are simply family members or acquaintances of real terrorists and have done nothing to be placed on the list.
There are 700 thousand people on the list which typically includes people with “reasonable suspicion” of being a known or potential terrorist.
In 2012, a survey had found that 76 percent of American gun owners, including a 71 percent majority of NRA members, support a push for banning people on the list from purchasing firearms.
The horrifying report comes in the wake of purported Daesh terrorists' Friday night's attacks in Paris that killed at least 132 people. Shortly after, the group threatened Washington with similar atrocities.
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