The FBI issued a warning about a hunting license loophole months before it was used to obtain a gun by Mohammed Alshamrani, who killed three people at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida, last week, Yahoo News reports.
Per Yahoo, the agency sent around a report in May that warned business about the possibility of "extremists and other criminal actors" exploiting a federal exception allowing "non-immigrant visa holders" to legally purchase firearms via a hunting license or permit. The alert noted that terrorist organizations like the Islamic State "have encouraged" people to find workarounds in U.S. gun-purchasing laws "to conduct mass casualty shooting attacks in their home countries."
The FBI confirmed Tuesday that Alshamrani obtained his weapon through the hunting license exemption, but the retailer he reportedly bought it from declined to say whether the store received the FBI's warning. While the 21-year-old member of the Royal Saudi Air Force, who was an aviation student at the base, does not appear to have any direct links to international organizations like ISIS, the shooting is being investigated as a terrorism incident.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is now reportedly "at a minimum" advocating for "improved vetting" of foreign nationals seeking to purchase firearms, though he remains a "strong proponent of the Second Amendment for United States citizens," a spokeswoman, Helen Aguirre Ferré said. Read more at Yahoo News.
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