Dems Introduce Bill to Close Non-Existent Background Check Loophole

In this July 20, 2014 photo, with guns displayed for sale behind her, a gun store employee
AP/Brennan Linsley

On October 28, Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) introduced legislation to close a non-existent “background check loophole.”

The myth of the loophole is a perversion of the fact that Charleston gunman Dylann Roof passed a background because of an FBI “error”—an “error” which gun control groups have done their best to paint as a loophole ever since.

Breitbart News previously reported that FBI director James Comey said Roof passed a background check because of a clerical “error,” by which an FBI background check reviewer looked into files for the wrong police department. The reviewer searched records at the Lexington Police Department instead of the Columbia Police Department, and thereby missed the felony charge that would have barred Roof from gun possession.

Comey said the failure to look at the correct police records “was the primary error in a series of failures that allowed Roof to acquire the weapon used in the attack.” Comey acknowledged it was a “mistake” that was made in “a matter of heartbreaking importance.”

Yet Blumenthal, Feinstein, and Murphy are labeling the “error” a “loophole” and pushing legislation to fix it. According to The Hill, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) spoke in favor of the legislation, saying, “The background check system is broken. A bill that is this straightforward is a test for the United States Senate. It asks the fundamental question, ‘Who do you work for?’… So long as we don’t act, we make it clear that this Congress works for the NRA [National Rifle Association].”

No explanation was given as to why Warren injected the NRA into a process where the FBI admitted that their mistake allowed Roof to acquire his gun, but Warren clearly wants the NRA brought into the debate.

The bottom line—there is no loophole, but there was a mistake. To push for a revision of the way background checks are done because of that mistake is a total overreach which is typical of anti-gunners like Blumenthal, Feinstein, and Murphy.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.