Editorial: Gaping hole in vigilance

Wednesday, March 9, 2005 | 9:03 a.m.

There are certain stories whose headline alone drives you to put down the newspaper for a second and scream, "What the heck is going on?" One such headline appeared in The New York Times on Tuesday. It read: "Terrorism suspects are buying firearms in U.S.; FBI says that concerns about personal privacy constrain actions." The story went on to say that people with clear links to terrorist groups -- the people who are on federal watch lists -- are legally buying weapons in this country because of gaps in our gun laws. The story was not based on biased sources within gun-control groups. It was based on the findings of the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

The GAO report found that during a nine-month period last year, 58 people whom the FBI considers to be known or suspected members of terrorist groups applied for permission to buy or possess a gun. Forty-seven of the applications were approved. Despite the obvious threat to public safety, the approvals were granted because background checks on the applicants revealed no felony convictions, evidence that they were illegal immigrants or reason to believe they were "mentally defective." These are the normal reasons for authorities to automatically disqualify someone from buying a gun.

But being a known or suspected terrorist doesn't count. This is insane. Imagine the follow-up stories that would appear if terrorists used legally purchased guns to commit an atrocity in one of our cities. The stories would reveal that the government knew of the perpetrators' ties to terrorist groups beforehand yet did nothing to prevent them from stocking up at gun shops. The American public would be outraged and our Homeland Security Department would be rightfully exposed as ineffective.

Under current federal law, the names of all people seeking to buy guns are run through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. If nothing amiss is revealed, their application is approved and the record of the background check is destroyed 24 hours later. In our view, the law should also require that the names be cross-referenced with the FBI's classified list of suspected terrorists. This is what the GAO did in its study, but it's not routinely done because our gun laws place personal privacy ahead of national security. Additionally, there should be a federal law stating that inclusion on the list of suspected terrorists is sufficient reason to deny anyone's application to buy a gun. To prevent abuse of this power, there should be an appeals process available to anyone denied a gun purchase.

While such a procedure might add a little time to a person's gun-buying experience, it would add a lot of common sense to our efforts to be more vigilant against terrorism.