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« You don't need no steenking permit in Maine | Main | More on the Charleston killer »

FBI: we screwed up the background check on the Charleston church killer

Posted by David Hardy · 10 July 2015 11:41 AM

From ABC News. The story is somewhat off, tho, when it says the problem was that the check system did not note that he'd been caught with drugs:

"When Roof first tried to buy the weapon from a dealer on April 11, an FBI examiner spent several days determining whether the sale should be approved. The examiner missed Roof's previous admission to drug possession during an arrest, which under FBI guidelines should have barred him from buying a gun, according to Comey."

It was a delayed approval, so presumably the check turned up his arrest, and the examiner then had to figure out if it resulted on a prohibiting event. It turns out that it was a felony arrest for drug possession, and those charges were apparently still pending. A person under felony charges can continue to possess firearms, but cannot receive any additional ones. 18 U.S.C. ยง922(n) ("It shall be unlawful for any person who is under indictment for a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year to ... receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.") When the examiner followed up on the arrest, they should have found it was for a felony and the charges were still pending, and thus should have blocked the sale.

UPDATE: Bloomberg's Everytown is claiming that this proves the the waiting period for clearing up "delayed" cases should be longer. It concedes the dealer waited five days. How long does it take for the background examiner to call the prosecutor's office and ask if the case is still pending? The most logical conclusion is that someone dropped the ball, not that it would take many days to make one quick phone call.

8 Comments | Leave a comment

harp1034 | July 10, 2015 6:09 PM | Reply

The FBI only checked with Sheriff but not with the city police who arrested him. Still they dropped the ball.

rd | July 11, 2015 12:07 AM | Reply

It sounds like the FBI never denied the purchase, and it was actually a delayed approval by the FBI, that was approved incorrectly/ erroneously. Does any one have definitive information? The other possibility is they never denied nor approved the background check, and it just sort of fell through the cracks?

If the FBI correctly decided it was a delayed denial, they even had at least a month to follow-up and recover the gun. Did they ever try to recover the gun?

Mark-1 | July 11, 2015 9:52 AM | Reply

I've long held NICS is a un-workable, *nice* idea fraught with problems. Main problem; it's inaccurate and corrupted, open to abuse by states run by anti-gun administrations.

NICS needs healthy revamping and over-sight by Congress to make it worth its original intent and budget.

Chuck | July 11, 2015 10:01 AM | Reply

The information I read was that the wrong arresting LEA was entered into NICS. When the examiner called the LEA they had no record of the arrest. I understand the examiner then called some surrounding agencies based upon a contact list that she had but the arresting LEA was not on the list. Sounds like she acted with due diligence. I understand that while this was ongoing the time limit ran and the dealer transferred the gun legally per NICS procedures.

I guess the real question is how the wrong LEA got entered into NICS or one of the associated data bases

Chris (Mainsail) | July 11, 2015 10:17 AM | Reply

The FBI admitted? I don't think this admission was a sneaky anti-gun move. It's likely a play for a budget increase. Next week they'll be testifying before a congressional committee that if only they had more money they could keep things like this from happening.

Tom | July 11, 2015 1:49 PM | Reply

I'd guess that the anti-gun strategy will be to lobby to change the law so that if there is a delay in the NICS, the buyer must wait until it clears (or not).
Sounds reasonable, right?
I mean, if there is a delay in the NICS check, there is likely a problem (drugs, felonies, mental health adjudication, domestic abuse, etc) with that person's background.

Chuck | July 11, 2015 3:31 PM | Reply

So, how many guns are seized by LEAs that were transferred after the waiting period but then the NICS check came back denied.

Honest question. Does this happen often?

Anonymous replied to comment from Mark-1 | July 14, 2015 9:37 AM | Reply

I disagree.

NICS should go away completely.

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