The man who attacked a Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, was not legally able to purchase a firearm, but still passed a background check because the Air Force did not inform the FBI of domestic violence convictions he obtained during a court martial. He had applied for a Texas concealed handgun license, but was denied by the State.
We do know that the attacker purchased his rifle in Colorado, and lied in BATFE Form 4473 (the background check form), saying that he did not have a criminal history. The FBI’s NICS system should have caught the lie, but did not because the Air Force did not notify the FBI. It's a felony to lie on those forms.
So why was the FBI not notified? Well, government incompetence for one, but also because of the fact that Democrats filibustered legislation in 2013 that would have required the Air Force to report that conviction to the FBI for record, Senator Ted Cruz has revealed.
Sens. Grassley and Cruz roll out alternative gun control bill | TheHill
“In 2013, in the wake of Sandy Hook, I joined with Chuck Grassley, we introduced legislation that was called the Grassley-Cruz legislation. And it was aggressive legislation targeting felons and violent criminals to stop them from getting guns, Cruz said.
If the Democrats want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, why in God’s name did they oppose this?
The more I learn about these safeguards/laws to prevent criminals from purchasing guns the more I realize the Democrats (at least elected officials) do not want to limit criminals in purchasing guns. Why? Probably because the more criminals with guns the greater likelihood that there will be gun violence and give the idiot Democrats fuel to try to go after law-abiding individual's gun rights. Sounds sick and unbelievable that this would be the case, but when you have this group aborting children I don't think this logic is off.
And the Obama administration was not so keen on prosecuting individuals who lied on these forms, or on those who otherwise tried to buy guns illegally. In 2010, 48,000 felons and fugitives lied and tried to illegally purchase guns. They prosecuted only 44 of them.