During an interview with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) regarding his efforts to ensure New York City remains safe during heightened security in the wake of ISIS terrorist attacks, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews insisted "the NRA is nondiscriminatory when it comes to who gets guns. They're for everybody getting them, including terrorists."
Matthews made the comment in connection with his gripe that persons on the terrorist watch list are not necessarily barred from being able to buy guns.
But of course the reason why is that these lists are not lists of felony convicts per se but a government watch list of terrorism suspects. Since the NRA is a vile bogeyman to Matthews, here's an excerpt from the National Shooting Sports Foundation "Fast Facts" sheet on the Terrorist Watchlist about why they are concerned about automatically barring a person on said list from a gun purchase:
- It is unacceptable to deny Americans their Second Amendment rights without due process because they were placed on a government list or their name is similar to a name on the terrorist watch list.
- There are major problems with how names are added to the list and errors are rampant. If placed onto the secretive list erroneously, it is difficult to be removed.
- It is easier to be placed on the Terrorist Watchlist than the No-Fly list, although there is no Constitutional right to fly.
- If such a law were enacted, the list would serve as a Terrorist Notification system, as terrorists could find out whether they are on the list simply by attempting to purchase a firearm. The current system more appropriately allows law enforcement the chance to scrutinize suspected individuals.
- We all support the goal of preventing domestic terrorism. Dangerous terrorists and criminals should be included on law enforcement wanted lists or should be charged with a crime. Either action would prohibit these individuals from purchasing firearms.
Here's the relevant transcript. You'll also notice how Matthews insists he "love[s] our country's freedoms" but suggests the Second Amendment doesn't really fully apply in New York City (emphasis mine):
MSNBC
Hardball
Nov. 19, 2015CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know I love our country's freedoms. And we were talking tonight about the New York Times. You probably read it today, Mr. Mayor, uh, Mike Schmidt wrote it. He put together the conundrum that the law enforcement people at the federal level face, and you do in New York City since it's maybe a target, who knows. And he talked about the problem of the FBI anxious because they know that people are out there who make speeches against our country, who Twitter really anti-American lies, they talk about support for ISIS, even directly. They also have access under our Second Amendment outside of New York to go around and buy heavy hardware. They can buy AK-47s. So we have a country, you put the First and Second Amendment together and you throw in zealotry, religious-based zealotry, and we have a problem of predicting how the powder, when it's gonna blow. And doesn't it worry you? It worries me.
Mayor BILL DeBLASIO (D-New York City): It worries me for sure, but I want to start at the beginning, those same exact facts you delineate, that's exactly right, well, that's what's going on with militias around the country that aren't about foreign terrorism, they're home-grown sadly. They target law enforcement officials willingly, that, and same exact reality. The people who use violence against Americans, against law enforcement, they can get those weapons as you describe. These campus shooters who often don't have any ideology, they have a mental health problem. They can get these weapons.
You're entirely right, the laws in this country governing the use of guns don't stop this violence from happening in many, many forms, but I agree, perhaps the most galling of all is that a terrorist who wants to attack the United States of America and says it out loud can still get a gun at a store in this country even if they're on a list that identifies them as a danger. You know, I'd like to believe that the NRA and others –
MATTHEWS: Two thousand of them have done it. Two thousand.
De BLASIO: Two thousand have done it.
MATTHEWS: And by the way, the NRA is nondiscriminatory when it comes to who gets guns. They're for everybody getting them, including terrorists.
De BLASIO: You know what? Maybe this is a moment for some revelation, because people are waking up to the threats we're facing around the world more and more. Maybe it's something that will jolt the debate in this country on the availability of guns, just like the campus massacres. I've got to believe at some point there's a critical mass that actually changes our politics and changes our policies.
MATTHEWS: You know, I thought when Bobby Kennedy, the senator from New York, was killed by an Arab terrorist, because they didn't like what Bobby was saying about where we should have our embassy in Israel, that was the basis of his mission, if you will, Sirhan Sirhan. I wrote my congressman. I thought that would stir a change on gun control. It didn't.
That last part is sheer revisionist history and Matthews has to know better. In point of fact, Congress did pass and President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Gun Control Act of 1968. The impetus for moving the legislation was the April 4 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the June 6 assassination of RFK.
