The White House accused Senate Republicans Tuesday of allowing suspected terrorists to “buy guns with impunity” because of they didn’t pass a Democratic gun-control bill.
“The situation that is created by republicans blocking the Feinstein amendment is simply that individuals who are suspected of having ties to terrors are able to buy a gun with impunity,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “Those are the facts of the situation.”
He was referring to a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, that would barred gun sales to people on the federal terrorist watch list. It was one of four bills, two by Democrats and two by Republicans, offered in response to the Orlando terror attack that the Senate rejected this week in near party-line votes.
He gave his assessment of Senate Republicans’ action when asked at the daily White House press briefing about comments by Democratic Sens. Chirs Murphy and Elizabeth Warren, who said their Republican colleagues had “decided to sell weapons to ISIS.”
Mr. Earnest said the two senators can speak for themselves, but offered his own take on the issue.
The Feinstein bill raised concerns among both gun-rights advocates and civil liberties activists because the watch list is notoriously inaccurate and people on it could be denied their Second Amendment right without due process.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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