Dick Durbin: “Our colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, has filed an amendment. I believe she is making slight changes to it…”

“Our colleague from California, Senator Feinstein, has filed an amendment. I believe she is making slight changes to it, but the amendment addresses the first issue. It enables the Attorney General of the United States to deny a request to transfer a firearm to a known or suspected terrorist. The Senator from Connecticut said repeatedly, and I would like to repeat it myself, this is something the vast majority of Americans say: You mean a terrorist can buy a gun in America and you can't stop him? So, overwhelmingly, Democratic, Republican, Independent, gun owners, non-gun owners believe this is common sense. The Senator from California in this amendment says: Hereafter the Attorney General may deny the transfer of a firearm if the Attorney General determines, based on the totality of circumstances, that the transferee-- Purchaser of the firearm-- represents a threat to public safety based on a reasonable suspicion that the transferee is engaged, or has been engaged, in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support or resources therefor. So in the first sentence of about a six- or seven-sentence amendment, the Senator from California, in a few words, says exactly what the Senator from Connecticut has said. We want to give to the Attorney General the power to stop a suspected terrorist from buying a firearm in this country.…”