2017.11.07; Air Force Error Allowed Texas Gunman to Buy Weapons - NYTimes.com

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Air Force Error Allowed Texas Gunman to Buy Weapons

The scene outside the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., on Monday morning.
Todd Heisler / The New York Times
By DAVID MONTGOMERY, RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and JOSE A. DELREAL
November 6, 2017
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — A day after a gunman massacred parishioners in a small Texas church, the Air Force admitted on Monday that it had failed to enter the man’s domestic violence court-martial into a federal database that could have blocked him from buying the rifle he used to kill 26 people.
Under federal law, the conviction of the gunman, Devin P. Kelley, for domestic assault on his wife and toddler stepson — he had cracked the child’s skull — should have stopped Mr. Kelley from legally purchasing the military-style rifle and three other guns he acquired in the last four years.
"The Air Force has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction," the Air Force said in a statement.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/06/us/texas-shooting-church.html