The military failed to report the abuse committed by the Texas shooter, which would have prevented him from getting a gun. But the military also knew about these failures and apparently is correcting quickly enough.
The Pentagon has known about the military’s failure to turn over criminal records to the FBI for at least two decades — records that would have prevented the Texas church shooter from legally purchasing his firearms, The Denver Post reported.
Defense Secretary James Mattis said on Tuesday that he has ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general to investigate the Texas church shooter case to “define what the problem is.”
The shooter was institutionalized in a civilian psychiatric facility by the Air Force in 2012 where he later escaped. Several months later, a military court convicted him of assaulting his wife and intentionally breaking his young child’s skull. Both incidents made it illegal for him to purchase firearms, but the military failed to report his records to the FBI.