Political Quotes

On the recordFebruary 24, 2015
Mr. President, I rise today to address what I believe is a national security and public safety weakness. The United States currently has a system in place to keep known or suspected terrorists off of airplanes. But even though they can't fly, these very same terrorists can walk into any gun store anywhere in the country and purchase a firearm. If a terrorist is too dangerous to board an airplane, that same individual is too dangerous to possess a gun. That's why we are introducing the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, a bill to fix this glaring loophole in our background check system. This is not a hypothetical issue. Individuals with links to terrorism regularly purchase guns in the United States. According to data just received from the Government Accountability Office, between February 2004 and December 2014, there were at least 2,233 cases in which a known or suspected terrorist--individuals who at the time were on federal terrorist watch lists--tried to buy a firearm or obtain a firearm or explosives license or permit. In 91 percent of these cases, a total of 2,043 separate occasions, those known or suspected terrorists successfully passed a background check. The Kouachi brothers, the terrorists who killed 12 people at Charlie Hebdo in Paris, are reportedly on the U.S. no fly list.…
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Dianne Feinstein
Democratic · California

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