Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says a majority of the people on the federal “no-fly list” do not belong there and therefore should not have their right to purchase firearms taken away.
“These are everyday Americans that have nothing to do with terrorism, they wind up on the no-fly list, there’s no due process or any way to get your name removed from it in a timely fashion, and now they’re having their Second Amendment rights being impeded upon,” Rubio said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.
{mosads}The GOP presidential hopeful said the lists are far from perfect and a poor measure of who should and should not have access to a gun.
“The majority of the people on the no-fly list are often times people that just basically have the same name as somebody else who doesn’t belong on the no-fly list,” he said. “Former Senator Ted Kennedy once said he was on a no-fly list. There are journalists on the no-fly list. There are others involved in the no-fly list that wind up there.”
“Sometimes you’re only on that list because the FBI wants to talk to you about someone you know, not because you’re a suspect. And, again, now your Second Amendment right is being impeded with,” he added.
The Senate blocked a bill’s amendment pushed by Democrats that would have made it illegal for people on federal terror watchlists from purchasing firearms.
“If these were perfect lists, that’d be one thing, but there are over 700,000 Americans on some watch list or another that would all be captured under this amendment that Democrats offered. That’s the problem,” Rubio said. “There aren’t 700,000 terrorists operating in America openly on watch lists.”