The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a statement blasting legislation proposed Tuesday that would keep suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms, saying it lacks due process and unfairly targets Muslims.
“American citizens who are wrongly placed on the federal terrorist watch lists must be afforded the constitutional right to due process and the ability to effectively challenge inappropriate watch list designations,” CAIR, the country’s largest Muslim civil rights group, said in a statement Wednesday.
“We oppose the Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act of 2016 because it appears to limit the ban on firearms purchases to American Muslims and seems to be more concerned about an appeals process to obtain a firearm, instead of creating a similar process for listed individuals to challenge watch list designations,” the group said. “It would seem the Senate is willing to only apply constitutional limitations on the American Muslim community, which is disproportionately impacted by federal watch lists.”
The bipartisan legislation, introduced by Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, would prevent people on two government watch lists, including the “no-fly” list, from being able to buy firearms. It would also give Americans and green card holders mistakenly put on a list a chance to appeal the decision.
“If you are too dangerous to fly on an airplane, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun,” Ms. Collins said Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Surely the terrorists attacks in San Bernardino and in Orlando that took so many lives are a call for compromise.”
CAIR argued against the “political nature” of watch lists and the “lack of ability to challenge inappropriate designations once they are made.”
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“Nelson Mandela, then former South African president, Nobel Prize winner and anti-Apartheid leader was on a U.S. terrorism watch list until 2008,” the group said. “Mandela himself needed special State Department clearance to visit the United States in 2008.
“We remain committed to reasonable gun safety reforms that expand background checks to all gun sales – including private handgun sales, gun shows and online sales. We also believe that firearms and domestic violence or stalking are a lethal combination, and we therefore support legislation that would keep guns out of the hands of such abusers. Moreover, we support the push for federally-funding research into the causes and effects of gun violence in America,” CAIR said.
Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s lobbying arm, acknowledged in a statement Tuesday that “no one” wants to see terrorists obtain firearms, legally or illegally.
“Unfortunately, Senator Collins and others are focusing their efforts on unconstitutional proposals that would not have prevented the Orlando terrorist attack,” he said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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