Sessions orders review of background check database for gun buyers; Black Friday checks set record
Attorney General Jeff Sessions/Shutterstock.com.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of the criminal background check database for gun buyers after questions arose about the military’s reporting of convictions to the system.
Sessions ordered a comprehensive review last Wednesday that includes a look at how the military reports convictions, the New York Times reports. Two days later, on Black Friday, the FBI received a record-setting number of background check requests, USA Today reports.
There were more than 200,000 requests for background checks for the first time, up from just over 185,000 each of the last two Black Fridays, breaking records also set on Black Friday in 2015 and 2016.
The military’s database reporting came under scrutiny because it did not enter into the database the 2012 court-martial conviction of Texas church shooting suspect Devin Kelley. Most of the cases reported by the military were listed under the general category “dishonorable discharge, according to a New York Times report earlier this month.
Sessions referenced the military reporting issue in a press release announcing the review. “The recent shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas revealed that relevant information may not be getting reported to the NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System),” Sessions said. “This is alarming and it is unacceptable.”
Sessions’ Nov. 22 order comes after a change in definition removed tens of thousands of names from the system in February, the Washington Post reports.
The FBI narrowed its interpretation of “fugitive from justice” to include only wanted people who have crossed state lines, according to the Post. That means about 70,000 people once defined as a fugitive banned from buying guns can now make the purchase because their names aren’t in the NICS.
Previously, any person with an outstanding arrest warrant was considered a fugitive from justice. The FBI is working to identify which people removed from the database because of the definition change should be put back into the system because of other reasons.
Only 788 people are categorized as fugitives from justice. There were about 500,000 people identified as fugitives before the database change, but about 430,000 were from Massachusetts because it reported misdemeanor as well as felony outstanding arrest warrants. The state is re-entering its data into the system under a special “state prohibitor” category that recognizes a Massachusetts law preventing gun purchases in the state by fugitives.
Hat tip to the Marshall Project.
