US Attorney General Sessions orders review of background check database for gun buyers, in wake of church massacre
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday ordered a far-ranging review of the FBI database used to check the backgrounds of prospective gun buyers, after the Air Force failed to report the criminal history of the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people at a Texas church.
The failure enabled him to buy weapons, purchases his domestic violence conviction should have barred.
The database “is critically important to protecting the American public from firearms-related violence,” Sessions wrote in his memo. “It is, however, only as reliable and robust as the information that federal, state, local and tribal government entities make available to it.”
The Pentagon’s inspector general launched a separate review of the Texas gunman, Devin P. Kelley, after the Air Force revealed it had failed to submit his domestic abuse case to the database. Kelley was able to buy four guns despite the conviction. He used a Ruger AR rifle with a 30-round magazine during the November 6 shooting, going from aisle to aisle as he shot parishioners.
Sessions ordered the FBI and ATF to work with the defence Department on its review and to identify other obstacles agencies face in sharing information with the database.
The problem has also caught the attention Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who joined forces on legislation that aims to strengthen the database by ensuring federal agencies and states accurately report relevant criminal information to the FBI.
