Guess Who A Watch-list Firearms Ban Would Have Missed?

From Ed Morrissey at Hot Air via H/T at Instapundit:

Senate Democrats plan to thunder back to the upper chamber today to demand passage of a gun-control bill in the wake of the Orlando terrorist attack. As was the case in 2015, the proposal contains provisions to deny firearms sales to anyone on a federal terror watch list or no-fly list. Guess who would have managed to slide by that ban? The Orlando terrorist himself, of course:

The man who police say killed 49 people in a brutal rampage in Orlando, Fla., early on Sunday morning was on a federal watch list for roughly 10 months in 2013 and 2014, while he was the subject of an FBI probe.

But then Omar Mateen was taken off the list soon after the investigation ended in March of 2014, FBI Director James Comey said on Monday

“He was watch-listed with the opening of the preliminary investigation and he was taken off the watch list when the investigation was closed,” Comey told reporters.

In other words, the Senate bill demanded by Democrats would have done absolutely nothing to keep the terrorist in Orlando from purchasing his weapons. That has been true of every event which has prompted this proposal. This came up most recently in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack, when not only were neither of the attackers on any watch list, DHS had just let Tashfeen Malik into the US despite her publicly expressed radical-jihadist sympathies.

Not surprising! One can't let a crisis go to waste.