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MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show: Maddow Backs Quigley’s Failed Amendment to Prevent Terrorists from Buying Guns

June 8, 2011
In the News

Rep. Quigley's amendment is mentioned at the 3:00 mark

Rachel Maddow: There are a lot of things that guns can be used for that are not terrorism, of course, and there are a lot of things that are terrorism, of course, that can be done without guns. But here where they overlap there's been a lot of news lately. For example, the terrorists, as in the ones you are thinking of as in al Qaeda central, they've put out a new video, a really long one. It's nearly two hours long, the world's most boring al Qaeda feature length film.

In it, al Qaeda HQ advises its sympathizers to get out there on their own. The idea is al Qaeda is not going to come to you with a readymade plot, Mr. Terrorist Wannabe, you've got to do-it-yourself. It goes through decades-long list of pseudo lone wolf terrorist attacks and describes and praises each of them from assassinations to the first attack on the World Trade Center to the Nadal Hassan, the Fort Hood shooter. Adam Gadahan, who is sometimes known as Azam the American, or as we like to call him on this show, Adam-the-goat-farm-dork, the guy who grew up loving death metal on a goat farm in California who now does these videos for al Qaeda.

At one point in this new video he addresses al Qaeda sympathizers in the United States. He tells them they are perfectly placed to do major damage to al Qaeda's enemies. If you are in the United States, he says, you are not only close to good terrorist targets. He also, says you have great terrorist resources at your disposal by virtue of the fact that you are in America. You can't see him here, but what you'll hear here is his voice.

Adam Gadahn: Let's take America as an example. America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms.

RM: I could continue to play the sound of him explaining his point, you can forgive me if I cannot stomach that. I will quote him for you, he says you can go down at a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for? You're not going to believe he says the last part in the al Qaeda videos. So here, I'll prove it.

Adam Garahn: So what are you waiting for?

Rachel Maddow: Truth be told, getting a fully automatic assault rifle is going to be hard even at a gun show. Semiautomatic no problem, but fully automatic, kind of a problem. You do generally have to show an identification card even at a gun show. What he says about not needing a background check, that's true.

Customer: No background check?

Seller: No.

Customer: That's good. I probably couldn't pass it.

Seller: I need proof of Arizona residence is all I need.

Customer: How's that? That's me. That's Arizona. Right?

Seller: That's all I need.

Rachel Maddow: Video from Mayors Against Illegal Guns showing people buying guns not only after not passing a background check, but after telling the seller they couldn't pass one. There's a bill in congress to make it you can't buy guns at gun shows without a background check anymore, it was proposed by Carolyn McCarthy, Democratic Congresswoman from New York. That bill has yet to get out of committee.

Even harder to believe than that, I submit, is the fact that if you have been put on the terrorist watch lists by the United States of America you may not be able to board a commercial flight in this country, after all you're on the terrorist watch list, but you can legally still buy guns. Last year almost 250 people on the terrorist watch list in this country legally purchased guns. They didn't sneak around or buy them on the black market. No 247 people whose names are on the terrorist watch list bought guns in America because that's legal. A Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley of Illinois has proposed making it so people on the terrorist watch list can't buy guns. His proposal was defeated along party lines last month. Every Republican on the committee voted to keep people on the terrorist watch list to buy guns. Also you're not sleeping right now. If you pinch yourself, you will find that this is real. You are not dreaming.

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