Background check lapse allowed killer to buy gun
By Roy Ockert Jr.
July 14, 2015
While much of the public attention in the wake of the June 17 Charlotte, S.C., church massacre has been focused on the Confederate battle flag, little has been said or done about the violations of existing gun laws that allowed the shooter easy access to the weapon he used to kill nine people.
The tragedy at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church disturbed the leaders of South Carolina enough that they decided to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. That should have been done long ago.
But the flag’s only connection to the case was that Dylann Storm Roof posted on a white supremacist Web site a photo of himself waving a Confederate flag and holding the handgun he used to kill nine black members of the church during a prayer meeting. Other pictures show him spitting on and burning an American flag.
The Confederate flag has long been a symbol of the rebellion and fight over slavery that led to the Civil War, and it belongs in a museum, not on statehouse grounds. While we waved that flag and sang “Dixie” for many years at public events across the South, including high school football games, we’ve surely progressed beyond being proud of that part of our heritage.
Obviously, Dylann Roof hadn’t. His abuse of the American flag is protected by the First Amendment, but his murderous behavior is criminal and deserving of the ultimate punishment.
A more important question, though, is what, if anything, could have prevented this tragedy.
Gun rights advocates argue that if anyone else at the prayer meeting had possessed a gun, Roof could have been stopped before he killed nine people. They may be correct, but that argument seems to suggest that in this 21st century all Americans should carry a gun everywhere if we truly want to be safe from the madmen who walk among us.
If so, we haven’t really come very far from the Old West, have we?
Gun control advocates argue that new laws are needed to keep guns out of the hands of such madmen. But even if we could pass a tougher gun law in today’s political climate, what good will the law do if it can’t or won’t be enforced?
The fact is that Roof should not have been able to buy a gun — at least not in the manner that he did.
FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday that lapses in the agency’s background checks system allowed Roof to buy a .45-caliber Glock handgun from a West Columbia, S.C., gun store near his home.
Comey said that Roof went to the store on April 11 to begin the transaction. As prescribed by law, the dealer submitted Roof’s biographical information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which handles background checks for gun purchases in about 30 states, including South Carolina and Arkansas.
Under the law the FBI has three business days to deny or approve a purchase. If a decision is not made within that period, the law allows the dealer to complete the sale anyway. That provision, by the way, was inserted in the 1994 Brady Bill with the backing of the National Rifle Association.
According to the FBI, a transaction could be rejected for a number of reasons, including the person:
• has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison;
• is a fugitive from justice;
• is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance;
• has been convicted of crime of domestic violence; or
• has been adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution.
On April 13 an experienced FBI examiner reviewed Roof’s request, checked his criminal record and found that he had been arrested for illegal possession of narcotics in February and had admitted his guilt. That admission should have triggered an automatic rejection.
Unfortunately, the data was not properly entered in the database of criminal records submitted by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and maintained by the FBI. The examiner checked further but never got confirmation from the responsible agency or prosecutor. Therefore, the gun sale went ahead after three days.
“This case rips all of our hearts out,” Comey told reporters. “But the thought that an error on our part is connected to this guy’s purchase of a gun that he used to slaughter these good people is very painful to us.”
If Roof’s request had been denied, he might have been able to obtain a weapon from a private seller not required to do a background check, or he could have stolen one. He was determined to kill people.
Nevertheless, this case, like the Virginia Tech and Columbine massacres, adds further evidence to the need for a more efficient gun background check system. If it can’t stop felons, what good is it?
FBI data shows that from 2010 through 2014 gun dealers went forward with 15,729 gun sales to prohibited people because a background check could not be completed within three business days. Some retailers, such as Wal-Mart, refuse to complete gun sales without final background check results. Several states, including Tennessee (15 days), have longer “default proceed” periods.
The FBI and Department of Justice have asked for the period to be extended. If another day or two could save lives, it would certainly be worthwhile.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.