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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 12, 2018
Gun background check system riddled with flaws
Major holes in
the database
By MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Recent mass
shootings have spurred Con-
gress to try to improve the
nation’s gun background
check system that has failed
on numerous occasions to
keep weapons out of the
hands of dangerous people.
The problem with the leg-
islation, experts say, is that it
only works if federal agen-
cies, the military, states,
courts and local law enforce-
ment do a better job of shar-
ing information with the
background check system —
and they have a poor track
record in doing so. Some of
the nation’s most horrific
mass shootings have revealed
major holes in the database
reporting system, including
massacres at Virginia Tech in
2007 and at a Texas church
last year.
Despite the failures, many
states still aren’t meeting key
benchmarks with their back-
ground check reporting that
enable them to receive fed-
eral grants similar to what’s
being proposed in the current
legislation.
“It’s a completely haphaz-
ard system — sometimes it
works; sometimes it doesn’t,”
said Georgetown Univer-
sity law professor Larry Gos-
tin. “When you’re talking
about school children’s lives,
rolling the dice isn’t good
enough.”
In theory, the FBI’s back-
ground check database,
tapped by gun dealers during
a sale, should have a definitive
list of people who are prohib-
ited from having guns — peo-
ple who have been convicted
of crimes, committed to men-
tal institutions, received dis-
honorable discharges or are
addicted to drugs.
But in practice, the data-
base is incomplete.
It’s up to local police,
sheriff’s offices, the mili-
AP Photo/Seth Perlman
Assault weapons and handguns are seen for sale at Capi-
tol City Arms Supply in Springfield, Ill., in 2013.
tary, federal and state courts,
Indian tribes and in some
places, hospitals and treat-
ment providers, to send crim-
inal or mental health records
to the National Instant Crim-
inal Background Check Sys-
tem, or NICS, but some don’t
always do so, or they may not
send them in a timely fashion.
Kruse hits back on sex
misconduct claims
Associated Press
SALEM — Days before an
Oregon state senator was due to
leave his post over sexual mis-
conduct allegations, the Repub-
lican from rural downstate pub-
lished a newsletter casting
himself as a victim of politics.
State Sen. Jeff Kruse of
Roseburg had previously
announced he was resign-
ing Thursday after an inves-
tigation determined he had
harassed women with unwel-
come physical contact.
But on Friday, he said he
resigned without the extent of
his due process so as not to dis-
tract from the legislative ses-
sion’s business.
He also made a plea for his
legacy to be remembered aside
from his swift downfall, which
he called a scripted “soap
opera” designed for political
gain.
The independent investiga-
tor in response urged the pub-
lic to read the report detail-
ing years of inappropriate
behavior.
Some agencies don’t know
what to send; states often lack
funds needed to ensure some-
one handles the data; no sys-
tem of audits exists to find
out who’s not reporting; and
some states lack the political
will to set up a functioning
and efficient reporting pro-
cess, experts said.
Woman airlifted from
Saddle Mountain
The Daily Astorian
The Coast Guard airlifted
a woman from Saddle Moun-
tain after she injured her
ankle Sunday night.
She was hiking about 2
1/2 miles up the mountain
when she slipped on snow.
The Coast Guard received the
request for aid and launched
an MH-60 Jayhawk helicop-
ter crew shortly before 8 p.m.
About 10 minutes later, the
crew arrived on the scene an
hoisted her into the aircraft.
She was then flown to Air
Station Astoria and taken to
Columbia Memorial Hospital
for treatment.
“The system is riddled
with opportunities for human
error,” said Kristin Brown,
co-president of the Brady
Campaign to Prevent Gun
Violence.
A proposal in Congress
seeks to establish a structured
system for federal agencies
to send records to the NICS
database. U.S. Sen. John
Cornyn of Texas says the leg-
islation — often referred to
as “Fix NICS” — will save
lives.
“We should start with
what’s achievable and what
will actually save lives, and
that describes the ‘Fix NICS’
bill. It will help prevent dan-
gerous individuals with crim-
inal convictions and a history
of mental illness from buy-
ing firearms,” the Republican
said.
Often left out of the debate
in Washington, D.C., is the
fact that similar legislation
passed after the 2007 Virginia
Tech massacre, but many
records are still not being sent
to the database.
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The Justice Department
even set up a new grant pro-
gram that offered states help
with their reporting system,
but many didn’t even bother to
apply. In 2016, only 19 states
and one tribe received funds
totaling $15 million. The num-
ber of states currently partici-
pating is 31.
Several states aren’t eligible
for the grant because they hav-
en’t set up a system that allows
a person who was prohibited
from having a gun due to men-
tal health issues get their rights
restored. The National Rifle
Association has long-pushed
for those types of restoration
requirements, Brown said.
Important mental health
records that would have kept
Seung-Hui Cho from getting
the guns he used to kill 32
people at Virginia Tech were
never entered into NICS. The
gunman who killed dozens at
a Texas church in November
was able to purchase weapons
because the Air Force didn’t
send his domestic violence
conviction to the database.
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