A flower is placed inside a bullet hole in the window of Le Carillon restaurant in tribute to the victims of the terror attacks on November 15, 2015 in Paris, France. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

From 2004 to 2014, 2,043 terror suspects were able to legally purchase guns. The Government Accountability Office says that 2,233 terror suspects tried to purchase a gun, meaning that these suspects had a 91 percent success rate.

The report notes that under federal law, felons, fugitives, drug addicts, and domestic abusers are banned from buying firearms, but people on the FBI’s consolidated terrorist watchlist are free to buy guns without any legal problem, according to the Washington Post.

The New York Daily News notes that this means someone who might not be allowed to legally board a plane could buy an assault rifle.

The NRA has blocked past bills that would close this legal loophole. It says they are sponsored by “extremists,” that they are “aimed primarily at law-abiding American gun owners,” and that “prohibiting the possession of firearms doesn’t stop criminals from illegally acquiring them.”

Civil libertarians have pointed out that the FBI’s watch list is an imperfect tool: it includes 700,000 people and may include people with only marginal connections to terrorist groups.

The issue exposes an odd ideological fissure in the wake of last week’s terror attacks in Paris. It’s one that the The New York Daily News—not exactly a left-wing rag—has exploited in their coverage of another bill that seeks to close this loophole. They went for a provocative lede, “The NRA — and their gun-loving Republican cohorts — are refusing once more to stop terrorists intent on getting armed in the U.S.A.”

And an even more sensational cover:

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pounced on Republicans: “It is hard to believe that anyone could defend that someone on the Terrorist Watchlist should get a gun, no questions asked. I can’t believe that our Republican colleagues would block this now.”

The most recent bill is being proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)—who calls it a “no-brainer” in the wake of the ISIS attacks—and Rep. Pete King (R-NY). It has little Republican support, says King, who has been pushing for this bill for six years: “I strongly support it. But no, it’s not going to move right now.”

In the meantime, Republicans governors in over half the states have been saying they don’t want to accept Syrian refugees, even though not a single refugee has been arrested on terrorist charges since 9/11.