Getting To The Roof Of The Problem

So it turns out that the three-day waiting period built into background check laws, and gun store owners all looing the other way because of that, is exactly how Dylann Roof got a .45 caliber handgun when he should have been stopped.

The man accused of killing nine people in an historically black South Carolina church last month should not have been able to buy a gun, the F.B.I. said Friday in what was the latest acknowledgment of flaws in the national background check system.

A loophole in the check system allowed the man, Dylann Roof, to buy the .45-caliber handgun despite his having previously admitted to drug possession, the bureau said. Those conducting the background check did not have access to that police report.

“We are all sick this happened,” said the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey. “We wish we could turn back time.”

Mr. Roof now faces murder charges in a case that investigators say was racially motivated. Mr. Roof, who is white, is charged with killing nine people at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston.

And the NRA, Republicans, and the firearms industry have long fought against any law that would make background checks easier, because firearms and ammo would be more difficult to sell due to more accurate checks.  Right now all the NRA has to do is make sure background check laws remain weak, and then complain that they don't work and "can't stop criminals".

Well no, laws that are not enforced or are not able to be enforced aren't very good at deterring crime, now are they?  Imagine if the auto industry had police speed guns and traffic stops outlawed and then complained that speed limits did nothing to stop people speeding, so why have them at all?

And so Dylann Roof bought a gun when he shouldn't have been able to because the law wasn't enforced, and the NRA buys enough lawmakers to make sure that it never will be.