Obama: "Congress Should Act To Make Sure No One On A No-Fly List Is Able To Buy A Gun"

President Obama again called for restricting those on the no-fly from purchasing guns in his Oval Office address Sunday night.

In an Oval Office address to the nation Sunday night, President Obama once again called for banning those on the no-fly list from purchasing guns.

"Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun," Obama said in an address on combatting terrorism and Islamic State. "What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security."

In the wake of terrorism attacks in Paris and most recently in San Bernardino, California, on Dec. 2, Obama has repeatedly called for closing what his administration calls a "loophole" that allows those on the no-fly list to purchase guns.

Republicans and civil libertarians argue that terror watch-lists, which are secret and extremely difficult to be removed from, are not an appropriate tool for curbing the Second Amendment rights of American citizens.

"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," GOP presidential candidate and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN's Jake Tapper Sunday. "Former Sen. Ted Kennedy once said he was on a no-fly list. There are journalists on the no-fly list."

Senate Democrats introduced legislation in December that would bar those on terror watch-lists from buying guns, but Republicans voted it down, along with several other gun control measures.

“Shockingly, Republicans continue to preserve a loophole that allows FBI terror suspects to buy guns and explosives legally, without background checks," Democrat Senate minority leader Harry Reid said in a statement in November. "As we speak, a terrorist on the FBI’s terror watch list can walk into a gun show in your hometown and buy as many AK-47s and explosives as they need to commit the kind of mass, heinous slaughter of innocents we witnessed in Paris and which we know terrorists want to perpetrate here in America."



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