Published: Monday, May. 10, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 15A
Last Modified: Monday, May. 10, 2010 - 9:42 am

A surprised Tom Campbell uttered: "Oh, my goodness." Truer words could not have been spoken.

During last week's debate among the three Republicans seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a questioner asked whether people on the U.S. no-fly list, also known as the terrorist watch list, should be entitled to buy guns.

Campbell, the first to answer, put it perfectly: "No." Next up was Chuck DeVore, who said people on the terrorist watch list have a Second Amendment right to buy firearms, so long as they have not been convicted of a crime.

Astonishingly, Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett-Packard, agreed with DeVore, essentially siding with people deemed so dangerous they cannot legally fly on airlines.

The Government Accountability Office says individuals on the watch list bought firearms or explosives 1,119 times between 2004 and February 2010; only 109 were denied.

As it happens, there was a hearing last week in the U.S. Senate on Senate Bill 1317. The bill, carried by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., and co-sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and supported by Boxer, would ban people who are on the no-fly list from buying guns or explosives.

DeVore and Fiorina are siding with the National Rifle Association, which hotly opposes the Lautenberg-Feinstein bill.

It's a stunning position. Under their standard, the suspect in the Times Square car bomb attempt could buy firearms today; he, after all, has not been convicted. As Campbell put it, Oh, my goodness.