Kasich: Keep guns from those on no-fly list

Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) says he is in favor of preventing people on the “no-fly list” from being able to purchase guns.

{mosads}“Well, on the no-fly list, we probably could keep them from getting guns and ought to ban them,” Kasich said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

The Republican presidential hopeful said it is “common sense” to prevent people on terror watchlists from obtaining weapons, but that a balance must be struck in order to ensure suspects under review are not tipped off.

“We want to make sure that we can exploit all the information that we possibly can get. So if all of a sudden you tell everybody who’s on the watch list that you can’t do this or that, then guess what happens?” he said. “Then we lose our ability to track, we lose our ability to gather information, so I think we have to be careful.”

“Of course it makes common sense to say that if you’re on a terror watchlist that you shouldn’t be able to go out and get a gun, although you will be able to get it illegally, but what we have to deal with is the fact that we don’t want to tip somebody off that they’re under review and that we could be gathering critical information to disrupt the plot,” he added.

Republicans in the Senate prevented Democrats from approving a measure last week that would have barred people on federal terror watchlists from buying firearms.

Conservatives fear such a measure would deny people of their Second Amendment rights without due process.