FBI: Church suspect shouldn't have been able to get gun

[Lite Beer]

FBI: Church suspect shouldn't have been able to get gun
ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The man charged in the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre should not have been allowed to purchase the weapon used in the attack that killed nine people, FBI Director James Comey said Friday. He outlined the "heartbreaking" missed opportunities and background check flaws that allowed the transaction to take place.

"We are all sick that this has happened," Comey told reporters. "We wish we could turn back time, because from this vantage point, everything seems obvious."

He said he had ordered a review into what happened and that FBI officials would meet with victims' relatives.

The problems began with the drug-related arrest of Dylann Roof weeks before the shooting.

At issue was a police report from the arrest in which authorities say he admitted to possessing illegal drugs. Under federal rules, that admission would have been enough to immediately disqualify him from his gun purchase in April, even though he wasn't convicted of the charge.

But, Comey said, the FBI background check examiner who evaluated Roof's gun purchase order never saw the arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed on state criminal history records.

The purchase order was on hold for three days as the FBI examiner tried to figure out if it should be approved or rejected. Once that window closed without a clear answer, the gun dealer used its legal discretion to complete the transaction.

Comey said he learned about the problem on Thursday night.

"It may be a series of highly improbable events coming together, but this was a gun that was used to murder nine good people. So it's very important to me that we understand what we can learn from this," Comey said.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, condemned the errors.

"It's disastrous that this bureaucratic mistake prevented existing laws from working and blocking an illegal gun sale," Grassley said.

-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-11

[Lee4Life]

"A series of highly improbable events".....translation "someone dropped the ball big time"

[Srikcir]

Republican-dominated states abhor gun-control laws as they upset the NRA, principal political backer of the Republican Party. As such those states are tolerant of weak enforcement and loopholes in federal laws that allow people like Roof to get a weapon legally.

If the State is truly concerned about weak federal gun laws, it can pass its own more restrictive laws. With a Presidential election coming in 2016, that is unlikely.

[tigermoth]

In one of the very first news items on this story it said that the young man had been given the gun as a present from his father. What's right??

[MaxYakov]

In one of the very first news items on this story it said that the young man had been given the gun as a present from his father. What's right??

Who knows the Truth?

However, the first sentence in the article implies that Dylann Roof, the shooter, was the purchaser:

"The man charged in the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre should not have been allowed to purchase the weapon used in the attack that killed nine people, FBI Director James Comey said Friday."

Edited July 11, 2015 by MaxYakov