Maine’s Republican Sen. Susan Collins, along with a handful of bipartisan "moderates," has released her alternative plan for keeping guns out of the hands of terrorists. Once again, she's very concerned about the civil liberties implications for using the terror watch list when it comes to guns. When it comes to the rest of your life, she doesn't have a problem with it, like all of her Republican colleagues. But it's a big deal with guns, so she has her plan.
In a white paper, Collins’s office described the major provisions of the amendment: It prohibits gun sales to people on two terrorist watch lists, including the No Fly List; it allows for American citizens and green-card holders to appeal if their purchase is restricted and to get attorney fees recouped if they win; and it includes a “look-back provision” that requires FBI notification if someone who’s recently appeared in a broader terrorism database buys a gun. At the press conference, Collins noted that the total number of people on the two restricted lists is roughly 100,000, most of whom are foreign nationals.
But you don't really need to know everything that's in the legislation, because it's not going to get enough support from the majority to pass. The first hint came from Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who told reporter Chad Pergram he "worries about Constitutional issues in Collins gun/terrorism plan," and calls it "a slippery slope." That was a pretty good clue on what the NRA was going to do, though they actually waited until she released the plan before they nixed it.
Will it get a vote? Probably. Will it get 60 votes? The NRA has made sure that's a no.