In yet another example of federal gun oversight doing itself no favors, three cities have sued the Department of Defense in response to the recent Texas church massacre.
Philadelphia, San Francisco and New York City have joined forces in the lawsuit. They allege that service members who no longer have rights to gun ownership are not reported in a timely manner to the federal background check system.
The cities blame the failures of the federal background check system for the massacre in Texas, which saw 26 lives lost. Liberal New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is taking the public facing lead, giving many statements to the press about the “failure…of the Department of Defense.”
The FBI database of restricted gun owners is the baseline through which all local law enforcement conducts firearm background checks. Attorneys from the three cities involved in the lawsuit say that this database must be up to date, or there is no way to determine who has the right to legally own a gun on a local level.
The filing of the lawsuit took place in Alexandria, Virginia, federal court. To date, no federal official has given a statement on events.
The killer in the November 5th Texas church massacre, Devin P. Kelley, was a former member of the United States Air Force. Kelley had previously been convicted of assault on his family members in 2012. Since that conviction, his legal right to buy a gun was rescinded by the courts.
The Air Force admitted fault in failing to report Kelley’s previous criminal history to the FBI. They also admitted that after the fact, they found many other omissions in their reports, and eventually blamed the oversight on a lack of compliance measures and training. Army officials have expressed similar concerns with their own process.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has responded to the controversy by ordering a full review of the FBI database. All branches of the armed forces have publicized their efforts to improve reporting procedures as well as training.
All three cities involved in the lawsuit have been some of the worst in terms of gun violence. It is perhaps not coincidental that all three cities also lean hard left in their politics. The mayors of all three cities are Democrats. This begs the question – should we really be looking in this direction if we want to prevent mass shooting in the future? There seems to be much more going on than a simple reporting error.
Perhaps if it were easier for well meaning citizens to purchase a firearm, the criminals would not be the only ones with them. There is definitely something to be said for a failure to report. However, those poor people in Texas should not have had to wait on the federal government to get their records straight.
Self protection always occurs on a personal level first. The protections of the government, while important, can’t really help when you’re looking down the barrel of an enemy’s gun in real time.
~ Firearm Daily
