Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump said he supports banning suspects on the terror watchlist from purchasing firearms, according to his Sunday interview with ABC.
“But is it your position that if you’re on that terror watch list, if you’re on that no-fly list, you should not be able to buy a gun?” Jonathan Karl from ABC asked Trump, The Free Beacon reports.
“I’d like to see that, and I’d like to say it, and it’s simpler. It’s just simpler,” Trump responded. “Now, what they say, and I understand that also, it’s the Second Amendment. They’re depriving them of those rights … We have to make sure that people that are terrorists or have even an inclination toward terrorism cannot buy weapons, guns.”
Although the National Rifle Association has officially endorsed Trump, there’s still some disagreement between the two on this proposal — though NRA representative Chris Cox told ABC no such conflict exists. The appearance of such conflict is nothing more than a creation of the media, according to Cox.
Part of the objection to banning terror suspects from purchasing weapons is it violates both the Second Amendment and due process rights. Additionally, the list includes those suspected of terror, which means they may not have even committed any crimes. The fear is that the government may slide people onto these secret watchlists for reasons unrelated to terror.
Trump added that he would talk to the NRA and admitted there are probably a lot of people on the terror list who shouldn’t even be there in the first place.
The debate on gun control has re-emerged following the terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, at the Pulse nightclub. Omar Mateen, an Islamic radical, killed 50 people, including himself, and injured 53 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation placed him on the terror watchlist twice in two separate years, but later removed him. However, even if he had remained on the watchlist, he still would’ve been able to purchase firearms.
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