Alfonse D'Amato

When it comes to guns, what are we waiting for?

Posted

It is hard to imagine that I would find myself writing about the nation’s worst terror attack since 9/11 and the worst mass shooting in American history.

Make no mistake about it. The mass shooting in Orlando, at the hands of American-born Omar Mateen, 29, was an attack on American freedom. God bless the victims and their families.

Not long after Mateen gunned down 49 patrons of a gay nightclub in Orlando using an assault rifle and pistol on June 12, the debate began. Is America’s lack of gun control to blame, or is it radicalized Muslims?

It’s both. President Obama and Hillary Clinton immediately blamed guns, rather than the shooter, for the attack. Despite the fact that Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS before the slaying, and the FBI has evidence of his allegiance, Obama stated, “We have no definitive assessment on the motivation.” That was similar to the response in the wake of the Paris attacks, when both Obama and Clinton refused to use the term “radical Islam” in describing the motivation for the attacks.

The statistics don’t lie. There have been over 27,000 attacks around the globe connected to Islam since 9/11. The five most deadly terror groups in the world are Islamic. It was disheartening to learn that Mateen had been investigated by the FBI. For 10 months in 2013, the bureau had him under surveillance, and recorded his calls and used confidential informants to determine whether he had been radicalized.

Then, in 2014, Mateen was interviewed multiple times about his contacts with Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, the first U.S. citizen to carry out a suicide bombing in Syria. The FBI said that they weren’t significant enough for him to be added to the terror watch list. Then, just days before the shooting, Mateen was able to purchase the weapons and ammo to carry out the attack.

This is too serious a situation to brush off as hindsight being 20/20. We are waging war against terrorism. The reason why Mateen was not investigated further by the FBI is because of bureau guidelines that limit the number of hours agents can conduct surveillance. FBI officials claim to have nearly 1,000 open investigations involving the Islamic State in all 50 states.

Democrats continue to blame the lack of gun control legislation for this attack. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, filibustered on the Senate floor for 15 hours in order to force Republicans to allow votes on amendments to a commerce bill seeking to tighten the nation’s gun laws. Murphy is familiar with mass shootings, having mourned the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Democrats want to prevent individuals who have appeared on the government’s terror watch list from buying guns, and also want to expand background checks. My friends on the other side are not wrong!

Republicans need to forget about the interest groups. Anyone on the terror watch list should not be able to obtain a weapon, and anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional. Now, I do believe that people who are wrongly put on the watch list should have the right to appeal, but there is no way they should be able to purchase a gun.

Also, everyone who wishes to buy a gun must absolutely have a background check. Purchasers are exempt from federal background checks at gun shows because they are purchasing from “private” dealers. I think both Republicans and Democrats can see the danger in such a loophole. Also, there are too many loopholes that enable the mentally ill and those with criminal records to buy guns.

When I served in Congress, getting this type of common-sense legislation passed wasn’t nearly as difficult as it is today. While I support the right to bear arms, as defined in the Constitution, certainly we can and must do much better. Do Americans really need assault-style rifles to protect their houses or to hunt? America needs reasonable protections, and that does not have to include eliminating the right to own a gun.

It makes no sense to have different policies in different states. We need federal guidelines. This is not a time for political grandstanding on either side of the aisle. There is likely another attack being planned as we speak, and we cannot afford to waste time.

Al D’Amato, a former U.S. senator from New York, is the founder of Park Strategies LLC, a public policy and business development firm. Comments about this column? ADAmato@liherald.com.