Being on the terrorist watch list is not grounds for being denied a legal firearm.
The Government Accountability Office has found that, from February 2004 to February 2010, 1,225 purchases involving individuals on the watch list were submitted for a Brady background check. Ninety-one percent of these transactions were approved; the other 9 percent were denied for reasons other than the purchasers' suspected terrorist activities. In 2009, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who was also on the FBI's radar, bought a gun that he used to execute a drive-by shooting outside a U.S. military recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas. One soldier was killed, another wounded. Similarly, anti-abortion activist Scott Roeder legally purchased the handgun he used to kill Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller in 2009 from a pawn shop in Lawrence, Kansas.
Bipartisan bills to reform the screening process have languished in committee because of pressure from the gun lobby. This must make Glenn Reynolds' head explode.