Even though they are on a US government watch list that forbids them from boarding planes, three people were able to apply for federal background checks to buy explosives, according to The Guardian.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, of California, on Thursday presented an amendment that would prevent “known or suspected” terrorists from purchasing firearms or explosives in the same way they are banned from traveling on planes, The Guardian reports.
“If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous to buy a gun,” Feinstein said after the Senate shot down the measure with a vote of 45 to 54. “Unfortunately, that common sense idea failed to attract enough votes to pass the Senate.”
The explosive checks are mentioned in a footnote on the latest report compiled by the US Government Accountability Office.
The identity of the three individuals was not revealed, and it is not publically known whether any one of them was granted a permit to buy explosives. Nonetheless, dealers wouldn’t be required to provide this information to the FBI.
Feinstein delivered the proposal a day after the San Bernardino shootings in which a Muslim couple fatally shot 14 people at a conference room, within a facility where patients with disabilities are treated.
Feinstein accused the National Rifle Association of enticing Senate Republicans to strike down her amendment. All but one of the 54 Republicans in the Senate voted against her measure.
Senator Pat Toomey proposed a similar gun-control measure following the December 2012 shooting at an elementary school in Newton, Conn. He was backed by Republican senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mark Kirk of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona.
