Federal law prohibits gun possession by anyone who "has been committed to any mental institution" -- another reason Devin Kelley should not have been allowed to buy an assault rifle.
Texas gunman escaped from psychiatric hospital in 2012
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/u...ng-church.html
The pastor, whose 14-year-old daughter was one of the victims, considered having the church demolished because continuing to hold services there would be "too painful." Then he came up with a better idea:
Sutherland Springs Baptist Church sanctuary to re-open as memorial one week after mass shooting
http://www.click2houston.com/news/na...-mass-shooting
US cities sue military over gun background-check system
Reuters, Dec 26 2017 8:54 AM
The cities of New York, San Francisco and Philadelphia have sued the US Department of Defense to make it fix its system for reporting conviction records to a database used for background checks on gun buyers. The lawsuit was filed on Friday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia and came after the US Air Force revealed it failed to report the criminal record of the man who in November killed 26 people and wounded 20 others in a shooting at a Texas church.
The complaint said it sought an injunction to prevent future "senseless carnage" by requiring the Defense Department to locate all records in its possession that should be reported in order to fix "deadly gaps" in the background check database.
Former Airman Devin Kelley, who opened fire in the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs on November 5, was convicted five years ago by a general court-martial on two charges of domestic assault against his wife and stepson. The Air Force said that information was not entered into the National Criminal Information Center database, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation oversees and uses to run required background check requests from gun dealers before a sale. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has since ordered the Justice Department to undertake a review of the system to help plug potential reporting gaps.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-t...-idUSKBN1EK168
Today we learned that the FBI did not follow up on two phone calls reporting that Nikolas Cruz planned to shoot students at his Florida high school -- and on February 14 he killed 17 people. Today we also learned that sheriff's deputies did not pursue a sexual assault investigation of Devin Kelley -- and a conviction and prison sentence would have prevented him killing 26 people at a Texas church in November 2017. The FBI and the police need to do a much better job of investigating threats and allegations. People's lives are at stake.
Sheriff didn't pursue sex case against Texas church shooter
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/16...ch-gunman.html
Gun violence in the United States is now so commonplace, schools and churches are installing metal detectors. How sad that this has become necessary.
Two Manhattan churches that survived 9/11 give in to the 'madness of the world,' install metal detectors
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-...325-story.html
According to Dallas Drake, a criminologist at the Center For Homicide Research in Minneapolis, there were 147 shootings in Christian churches between 2006 and 2016. That number does not include mosques or synagogues. And then came last year's massacre of 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. No place in America is safe anymore. No place.
Church shootings are becoming much more common
Yet the existing data suggests churches aren't more or less vulnerable to gun violence than other publicly accessible spaces.
https://psmag.com/news/church-shooti...ch-more-common
As I said at the beginning of this thread and again in the above post, no place in America is safe. No place.
One dead, one wounded in shooting at Mormon church in Nevada
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/1-...XLXM?ocid=AMZN
In a new series of interviews, Danielle Kelley says her husband tied her to the bed, put on body armor, picked up a rifle and two handguns and then shot and killed 26 people in a church before committing suicide. If she could have gotten to a phone and called 911, the massacre might have been prevented. And she says she still loves him, even though she hates what he did. Yeah, he was just so sweet and lovable. Sheesh!
Church gunman's wife says he handcuffed her to bed and told her he'd be 'right back'
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sutherl...fe-speaks-out/
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