https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...e0e_story.html
Dylann Roof, who is accused of killing nine people at a church in South Carolina three weeks ago, was able to purchase the gun used in the attack only because of lapses in the FBI’s background-check system, FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday.
Comey said Roof should have been prevented from buying the .45-caliber weapon used in the shooting, which authorities have said was motivated by
Roof’s racist views. The political repercussions of the
June 17 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in
Charleston led South Carolina to
remove the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds Friday. “This case rips all of our hearts out,” Comey said. “But the thought that an error on our part is connected to this guy’s purchase of a gun that he used to slaughter these good people is very painful to us.”
On April 16, after the mandatory three-day waiting period lapsed with no adverse ruling from the FBI, Roof got his gun — a .45-caliber Glock pistol. There is no requirement for a dealer to notify the bureau when it has sold a gun, bureau officials said.
“There were a combination of things; one could say highly improbable events came together in this circumstance,” Comey said. “But the one we are definitely accountable for is not having reflected the geography of South Carolina on our contact sheet.”
Comey said he had spoken to the examiner and described her as “heartbroken,” but he said she had followed proper procedures.
FBI agents in South Carolina met Friday with the families of the victims to explain what happened, he said.