The gun Dylann Roof allegedly used in the mass shooting of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, was sold to him, essentially, through a loophole.
CNN reported Friday Roof’s background check was never truly completed and took more than three days to process, so he was allowed to buy a gun under the ?current law.
Apparently the agent performing the background check on Roof could not ?conclusively find documentation of his previous conviction for drug possession or in which county the conviction took place.
Roof had already, however, admitted to the possession at the time of the previous arrest.
Had the National Instant Criminal Background Check System agent been able to confirm the possession before the three-day grace period was up, Roof would not have been allowed to purchase ?the gun.
The sloppiness of the existing gun control in this country is evident. It doesn’t reach far enough, and when it attempts to do so through the use of background checks loopholes exist to make things more convenient for gun sellers.
The answer here isn’t necessarily to elongate the period of time for background checks to make the process too inconvenient to complete properly.
The answer is to not sell the guns to anyone who doesn’t actually need them.
That’s right, I said it; I ?went there.
I textually reviled the idea of owning guns for sport or bragging rights or protecting your collection of “Space Jam” memorabilia.
Germany’s Weapon Act is one of the strictest out there, and even it doesn’t completely ban guns. It simply requires a private gun owner be able to prove personal reliability and necessity for a firearm.
And the argument gun violence is going to happen whether or not people can legally purchase the guns? That doesn’t hold up.
The Washington Post published the statistics for the number homicides in countries compared with the number of civilian-owned guns ?in each. With 270 million guns, the U.S. had 9,960 gun-related homicides in 2012. With just 25,000,000 firearms, Germany had 158.
The evidence is incontrovertible and the number of deaths inexcusable. We need to swallow our American pride and make a transition to a heftier gun policy for the safety of the whole country, or we will have nothing left to take pride in.
meickhof@indiana.edu
