In the days since the Orlando attack that marked the worst mass shooting in modern American history, gun control advocates in both Congress and the national security realm have tried to gather momentum for legislative action.
Following a nearly 15-hour filibuster by Democrats on gun control legislation, the Senate is expected to vote Monday on measures from both parties following a renewed push for action in the days since the Orlando attack. Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy, who led the filibuster, said an agreement had been reached to hold votes on whether to ban gun sales to people on the government’s terrorist watch list and on expanding background checks to gun sales made online and at gun shows. According to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the number two Republican in the Senate, members will vote on two Democratic and two Republican-sponsored proposals.
The measures are unlikely to gain traction, given it is a fiercely contested election year with many Senate seats on the line. And this isn’t the first time Congress has tried to tackle gun control in the wake of a tragedy — think back to the efforts after 26 people were killed, including 20 children, in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, when legislative gun control measures were defeated.
Outside of Congress, though, there is a new push from the national security sphere “to urge elected leaders to do more to prevent gun tragedies,” as the organization put it in their launch statement last week. Veterans Coalition for Common Sense, formally launched on the Friday before the Orlando shooting, features a number of top retired generals and admirals on its advisory committee, including Gen. Michael Hayden, former head of both the NSA and CIA, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, former commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Adm. Eric Olson, who was the first Navy SEAL to be appointed to four-star rank, and Gen. David Petraeus, the former CIA director.
The group is teamed with former astronaut and Navy veteran Capt. Mark Kelly and Americans for Responsible Solutions, the organization Kelly co-founded with his wife, former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, after she was shot in 2011.
The coalition, Hayden told The Cipher Brief, makes the point that “people with unarguable national security credentials are saying, you know, this is something we can actually talk about and we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about.”
“It just happens you had the horrible events in Orlando that kind of underscore that,” he said. “There is an image out there that national security folks are opposed to any form of gun control, and I think the idea of [Admiral] Thad Allen, Mike Hayden, Stan McChrystal, David Petraeus actually signing up for this kind of group suggests that you can be strong on security and still think we need to control guns.”
As for his own stance, Hayden said he is “quite open to ideas that go into each category, that some people shouldn’t have access to any guns and there are some weapons that no one should have access to,” adding that “I do not know of a good reason for M16 look-alikes to be generally available to the American public.”
The M16, a military adaptation of the AR-15, “is designed to kill people. Period. And kill people rapidly,” Hayden said.
“I certainly don’t know of a sportsmen’s reason for purchasing it. There may be self-defense reasons in extremis, but I think those self-defense reasons are trumped by the possibility we run into events like we saw Saturday night,” Hayden said.
Hayden noted that “one of the things I think the group is going to push out the door very quickly is there should be some connection to the terrorist watch list and the ability to buy weapons in the United States.”
Monday’s vote in Congress, meanwhile, will not be the first time members have faced the question of closing the so-called gun control “terror gap” or “terror loophole” that allows individuals on the terrorist watch list to buy guns.
In December, after the San Bernardino, California terrorist attack, respective measures from Cornyn and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) failed to pass. Both proposals, with modifications, will be considered again next week.
Feinstein’s bill looks to the Justice Department to check those trying to buy guns against the government’s terror watch list. While Feinstein’s December proposal would not have impacted the events in Orlando — the gunman had been on the FBI’s terrorist watch list when agents questioned him in 2013 and 2014, but he was removed after the investigation was closed in 2014 — the offering from the California Democrat will be an updated proposal in light of Orlando, extending the ban to anyone on the terrorist watch list in the past five years.
Cornyn’s legislation would institute a 72-hour delay for a gun shopper on the terror watch list, during which time the Justice Department would have to mount a case to prove that there is probable cause the person “has committed or will commit an act of terrorism” in order to deny the purchase.
The Justice Department on Thursday released a statement in support of Feinstein’s measure, writing that “the amendment gives the Justice Department an important additional tool to prevent the sale of guns to suspected terrorists by licensed firearms dealers while ensuring protection of the department's operational and investigative sensitivities.”
There are concerns from both the NRA and civil liberty groups that blocking those placed on terrorist watch lists could result in some of them having their rights infringed upon if they were mistakenly placed on that list.
The Senate will also vote on an amendment written by Murphy, Feinstein and New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker on background checks, as well as an alternative from Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ted Cruz of Texas focused on mental health and background checks.
None of what has been proposed on Capitol Hill comes close to what the White House wants. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama called for Congress to reinstate the federal assault weapons ban. The law that prohibited the manufacture of semi-automatic firearms for civilian use was passed in 1994, but it expired in 2004 and was not renewed.
“People with possible ties to terrorism who aren’t allowed on a plane shouldn’t be allowed to buy a gun,” he said. “Reinstate the assault weapons ban. Make it harder for terrorists to use these weapons to kill us.”
Mackenzie Weinger is the National Security Reporter with The Cipher Brief.
