Political Quotes

“I was looking at updated data from the Government Accountability Office that sort of leads to my next question, and it shows that known or suspected terrorists pass a background check to purchase a firearm or to purchase explosives 91 percent of the time. The terrorists themselves have actually identified this weakness. They know it exists. I sit on the Intelligence Committee, and we look at what they communicate to each other so that we can learn how to make our country safer. There was an Al Qaeda video in 2011 that literally instructed potential terrorists to take advantage of our incomplete background check system. There have been a number of terrorist attacks in recent years where giving the Attorney General the authority to prohibit a suspected terrorist from purchasing a firearm could have at least thrown up meaningful barriers. I think most notable was the horrendous Fort Hood shooting in 2009, where MAJ Nidal Hasan was able to pass a background check and buy a handgun, even though he was under an active FBI investigation for links to terrorism. He went on to shoot and kill 13 people. He wounded 30 others. So if we are saying that whole categories of other people present such a public safety threat that they shouldn't have access to firearms, I just can't believe we shouldn't at least give the Attorney General the ability to put terrorists on the same do-not-buy list. Why wouldn't we do that, Senator Murphy?”