Accused Bombers’ Firefight With Police Revives Gun Debate
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Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name on a U.S. government travel-watch list should have kept him from boarding an airplane without some scrutiny, yet he could purchase semi-automatic handguns with none.
Local and federal law enforcement officials either don’t know or aren’t yet saying how Tsarnaev and his brother, accused of bombing the Boston Marathon, obtained the guns they later used to kill a university police officer and critically injure a mass-transit officer. They didn’t apply for Massachusetts gun permits, as required by state law.