The Air Force says it failed to follow procedures, allowing Texas church shooter to obtain firearms

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Washington Post


By Alex Horton November 6 at 6:15 PM

The Air Force says it failed to follow policies for alerting federal law enforcement about Devin P. Kelley’s violent past, enabling the former service member, who killed 26 churchgoers Sunday in South Sutherland, Tex., to obtain firearms before the shooting rampage.

Kelley should have been barred from purchasing firearms and body armor due to his domestic violence conviction in 2014 while serving at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico. Kelley was sentenced to a year in prison and kicked out of the military with a bad conduct discharge following two counts of domestic abuse against his wife and a child, according to an Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek.

“Initial information indicates that Kelley’s domestic violence offense was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database,” Stefanek said in a statement released Monday. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have directed an investigation of Kelley’s case and “relevant policies and procedures,” she said.

Firearms retailer Academy Sports also confirmed Monday that Kelley purchased two weapons from its stores after passing federal background checks this year and last. It remains unclear whether those were the same weapons used in Sunday’s massacre, but his ability to purchase guns at all highlights the Air Force’s failure to follow Pentagon guidelines for ensuring certain violent offenses are reported to the FBI.


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/11/06/the-air-force-says-it-failed-to-follow-procedures-allowing-texas-church-shooter-to-obtain-firearms/?utm_term=.d6e173ca7b95

[rzemanfl]

1. Kind of a big fuck up. Like colliding a destroyer with a tanker. USA! USA!

Oh, and going to parties hosted by a contractor featuring hookers.

[maxsolomon]

2. Heads need to roll. Figuratively.

I kind of doubt they will. It is the sacred DoD after all. They're protecting our Freedom.

Besides:
"He just would have got the gun through another method."
or
"He just would have used a different weapon."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Blood is on the hands of the USAF person(s) who did not care or looked the other way ideologically.

They know who they are. I hope they suffer and tell others about their suffering so that the message about properly enforcing gun laws gets around so that more gun violence victims don't have to suffer.

The USAF probably know who the careless goons are. They should know and almost certainly will know very soon if they do not know now.

When the USAF finds them out, they must punish them heavily. Or blood will be on their hands for inaction.

[maxsolomon]

13. You're ascribing malice.

I'm too much a believer in Hanlon's Razor for that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. No I'm not. Of course Hanlon's Razor applies.

Criminal negligence is both criminal and negligent.

It is prosecutable.

[maxsolomon]

31. they even excused it as "unfortunate" on Democracy Now this morning.

you're right - criminal negligence on an institutional scale.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Lots of military-industrial corporate welfare. Meantime the basics are carelessly forgotten.

What does this bode for readiness?

Certainly readiness does not need more budget but does need more professionalism (from a generally already rather professional military).

[BumRushDaShow]

4. How many more are out there

who were not "entered into the National Criminal Information Center database". Probably thousands upon thousands.

[riversedge]

14. Lets hope they do a comprehensive review and correct any mistakes.

[joshcryer]

16. I'm sure many are already buying up guns for fear of being added.

Now that they know what to put on the form.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. Yup. nt

[underpants]

5. Dylan Roof should not have been able to buy a gun either

Due to pot arrest.

[TexasBushwhacker]

19. That was a failure of the waiting period being only 3 business days

Last edited Tue Nov 7, 2017, 12:42 AM - Edit history (1)

If the seller doesn't hear back from NICS after 3 days, they are free to sell to they buyer even without a definative approval.

BTW, Devin Kelley applied for a concealed carry permit in Texas and was DENIED, so I guess the system works sometimes.

[underpants]

24. Yeah. I wouldn't have let that freak Roof cut my grass

Let alone sell a gun to him.

[bluestarone]

28. Yea that's what i heard so

i'm confused what stopped him 1st time that didn't stop him second time??

[elleng]

6. Damn, that's an 'OOPS' from the Air Force.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. This sucks. The mechanism to prevent it existed. It just wasn't used.

NICS reporting is 'voluntary' from the states to the federal government. They report, they get access to extra law enforcement funding. It's a carrot and no stick arrangement.

The Military justice system is a whole 'nother ball of wax.


Edit: This kind of failure to report fuckup has been a fuckup going back to Virginia Tech and earlier.

[RandySF]

8. That cant be possible

The military is perfect in every way.

[Liberalagogo]

9. You just know that

if the USAF had followed the policies and barred this asshole from weaponizing himself, the whining from the wingnuts would be deafening.

And if the wingnuts deny it, they should have their fat sagging asses kicked hard.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

15. Yep...

... my second thought upon reading it. Damned if they do, damned if they don't. I hate to say this, but I hope at least one ammosexual gets the message.

[bobbieinok]

10. Could this have been influenced by Evangelicals' take-over of the AirForce?

For a while at least he was a So Baptist, I believe. Teaching Vacation Bible School, etc.

[Sam McGee]

12. Good point . . .

I hadn't thought of that angle and would not be surprised to find that the evangelization of the AF played a part in this.

[Loyd]

17. Oops!

[PatrickforO]

18. Maybe the clerk who was supposed to do that is a big NRA guy and wanted

to make sure that Kelly had his second amendment rights in spite of his violent background. Because, hey, according to the NRA, it is a slippery slope. If we keep one whack-job with a violent record from being able to get guns, then that leads to yet ANOTHER violent whack-job not being able to get guns. Where does it stop then?

Or, to use my favorite analogy: A kid on the playground threw a rock at another kid and hurt him. The teachers were concerned and so gave rocks to all the kids. Because, said one, everyone knows that only a good kid with a rock can stop a bad kid with a rock. Later, some members of the PTA protested this and said the teachers should take all the rocks away from all the kids so they were safe. The teachers replied that if they take rocks away from all the kids, but a bad kid wants a rock, he will find out a way to get one. The school administration, which was being paid off by the lapidaries, who were carving sharper and sharper rocks, began to run commercials, ads and bought billboard space to plug the right to rocks for every American. The school administration doubled down on this by allowing kids to get concealed carry rock permits so other people wouldn't know they were packin' until they pulled it out of their pocket and threw it at someone. Several whole school districts decided to allow 'open carry' rocks, ostensibly to discourage bad kids with rocks with peer pressure.

As the years went by, kids acquired more and more rocks and there were mass rock throwings and rock fights at more and more schools. In the meantime, the lapidaries developed a rapid fire device for rocks...

Isn't that how the NRA wants it? Those darned lapidaries!

[TomSlick]

20. This was certainly a world-class screw up but.....

The trial counsel (military term for prosecutor) at a BCD Special Court-Martial was almost certainly a squeaky new lawyer. Every military lawyer knows about the Lautenberg Amendment but it probably just didn't occur to him/her that the conviction needed to be reported in the federal system.

I like to think that it would have occurred to me long years ago as a young JAG to check on how to report the conviction in the federal system but I cannot be sure.

Remember Hanlon's Razor.

[kimbutgar]

23. Air Force has become christofascist

It’s ok to beat your wife according to the Bible.

A friends brother was in the Air Force and quit because he was trying of being told he’d never succeed unless he became a born again Christian. He is pilot now for Delta. .
.

[The Polack MSgt]

25. Fucking hell. This is incredible.

I'm fucking ashamed.

Jet mechanics go to jail if they are negligent and their fuck up causes a crash.

Who ever fucked this up AND THEIR SUPERVISOR should go to Leavenworth.

Holy fucking shit

[Not Ruth]

26. The military screwed up, sue them

[inwiththenew]

27. Something similar happened with Dylan Roof

The background check system is only as good as the information it can pull from. Some major fuck up lately.

[Justice]

29. exactly right. Not a question that already have a law, but obviously current system does not work.

Too many opportunities for human error.

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. I believe the issue with Roof was the 3 day waiting period

There is a 3 business day delay between choosing the firearm and actually buying it for the purpose of the NICS background check. However, if 3 days pass and the seller hasn't gotten a definitive "No" then they can go ahead and sell the weapon. I think the waiting period should be longer. It's just a maximum waiting period. Most sellers hear back from NICS in less than 3 business days.

[Blue_Adept]

30. Everything is evil and malicious. Watch it just be a clerical error along the way.

But man, there's a lot of people wanting blood in this thread that's pretty disturbing.

[kwalter66]

33. Clerical error

Yeah that harmless clerical error just cost 26 people, 14 of which were children, their lives. But hey, just a clerical error. Cow do you feel about the "clerical error" that allowed 19 people on the no fly zone to board planes on 09/11? I mean after all, it was just a clerical error right?

[Blue_Adept]

34. Shit happens

But some are portraying it as this horribly malicious act by someone that needs to be strung up.

The truth is that we don't know how it happened at this point. But a lot of people in this particular topic want blood. And that's disturbing.

[Not Ruth]

35. OMFG Air Force screwed up

The man who killed more than 20 people at a small Texas church escaped from a mental health facility five years ago after sneaking guns onto an Air Force base and making threats against commanders, according to a police report.

Devin Patrick Kelley's June 2012 escape from Peak Behavioral Health Systems in New Mexico occurred months after he was accused of abusing his ex-wife and her child, according to an El Paso Police Department report obtained by CNN affiliate KVIA on Tuesday.
Kelley was picked up after the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, facility listed him as missing. The documents said officers had been warned that Kelley was a danger to himself and others and that he had sneaked firearms onto Holloman Air Force Base, where he had reportedly threatened his commanders.