Local officials are praising the fact tha the U.S. military has added the names of some 4,000 people who have criminal records that prohibit them from legally buying firearms into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in the three months since the Sutherland Springs massacre, but they stress that far more needs to be done, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
“The failure to upload this essential, and required, information in the background check system is simply unacceptable. This only reinforces the need to fix what’s become a nationwide, systemic problem so we can better prevent violent criminals and domestic abusers from obtaining firearms," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tx), author of the Fix the NICS Act.
The Air Force conceded that it failed to enter the name of the Sutherland Springs gunman into the NICS after he was court martialed for domestic violence in 2011, a crime that should have rendered him ineligible to legally buy a weapon. But the man was able to buy a weapon at an Academy store in San Antonio and use it to gun down innocent worshippers at the church in early November.
A Department of Defense Inspector General's investigation revealed that all services have been lax at entering names into the NICS, and, in fact, the Air Force was more diligent than the Army or the Navy in making sure names were entered.
Ed Scruggs with 'Texas Gun Sense,' says the entry of 4.000 names is a 'good start.'"Sutherland Springs' pointed out how serious the problem is," he told News Radio 1200 WOAI's Michael Board. "What we are seeing now is a game of 'catch up' being played."