Turns Out the Air Force Is Woefully Incompetent at Reporting Service Members to the FBI's Gun Database
If the U.S. Air Force had reported Devin Kelley’s domestic violence conviction to the federal gun background check database as it is required to do, then he would have likely been prevented from purchasing the rifles he used to slaughter 26 people at a church in Texas earlier this month. However, Kelley’s conviction was not reported—and the Air Force admitted on Tuesday that its failure to do so in Kelley’s case was not an isolated incident.
The Air Force found several dozen cases in which a service member’s serious conviction was not reported after reviewing cases similar to Kelley’s. “The error in the Kelley case was not an isolated incident and similar reporting lapses occurred at other locations,” the Air Force said in a statement. “Although policies and procedures requiring reporting were in place, training and compliance measures were lacking.”