Al Franken: “allow me to briefly share some of the key data points from this, and then I will pose another question. The report…”

“allow me to briefly share some of the key data points from this, and then I will pose another question. The report provides that during the calendar year of 2015, the FBI's data demonstrates that individuals on the terrorist watch list were involved in firearm-related background checks 244 times. The report further provides that of those 244 times, 233 of the transactions were allowed to proceed and only 21 were denied. GAO helpfully points out that this means that potential terrorists were permitted to buy guns 91 percent of the time in 2015. Further, GAO provides that since the FBI began checking background checks against terrorist watch lists in 2004, individuals on such watch lists were permitted to purchase weapons 2,265 times out of 2,477 requests or, again, 91 percent of the time. I ask my friend from Connecticut: If we are allowing over 90 percent of people on the terrorist watch list to purchase deadly weapons here at home, does that not suggest that we aren't even coming close to doing everything in our power to combat terrorism and address gun violence?”