Background Check Lapse Let Dylann Roof Buy His Gun

If records were entered correctly, purchase would have been denied
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 10, 2015 1:03 PM CDT
Background Check Lapse Let Dylann Roof Buy His Gun
Dylann Storm Roof is escorted from the Cleveland County Courthouse in Shelby, N.C., last month.   (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

Dylann Roof should not have been able to buy the gun he's accused of using to kill nine people inside a South Carolina church. Because Roof had admitted possessing drugs following an arrest in February, his purchase of the .45-caliber handgun should have been denied, says the FBI. But it turns out the information wasn't entered correctly into the computers of the FBI's background check system, reports the Washington Post. "We are all sick this happened," says FBI chief James Comey, per the New York Times. "We wish we could turn back time." (More Dylann Roof stories.)

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