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News has emerged that Devin Patrick Kelley escaped from a mental health facility while he was in the Air Force. He was placed there because he made death threats against his supervisor. He was Court-Martialed and discharged from the Air Force after fracturing the skull of his wife’s toddler son. Yet this information was not entered into the federal database that supports instant background checks for gun purchases.
Kelley lied
But that’s not the only line of defense against felons and crazy people obtaining dangerous guns. ATF Form 4473 must be completed for each gun purchase, whether from a gun seller (who has a Federal Firearms License) or a private transfer. Obviously, Kelley lied on his 4473.
Question 11(f): Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution? (Yes/No)
Question 11(i): Have you ever been convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence? (Yes/No)
He hay have actually told the truth on question 11(g):
Question 11(g): Have you been discharged from the Armed Forces under dishonorable conditions?
The instructions state that “dishonorable conditions” means adjudicated by a General Court-Martial. Kelley was dismissed under a Special Court-Martial. But he lied on the other questions, which in itself is a felony.
It would appear that by simply lying on this form, if the information contradicting the assertions if not in the NICS database, is enough for nutbag to buy a gun and kill people with it. But there are other federal forms you can lie on too.
Other forms I can lie on
FCC Form 605 is used for all kinds of licensing applications. I am a licensed ham radio operator–I could lie on that form and buy licensed radio equipment that I could use to jam FAA frequencies and cause an aircraft to go off course, or even crash if I pretended to be a controller and issued false instructions. FAA Form 8710-1 is used to obtain an Airman Certification. I am a licensed private pilot. I could lie on that form to pretend I’m an Airline Transport Pilot, train on a 767…and you know the rest.*
I would not do any of those things, and in fact, doing them would be logistically challenging, if not impossible. But we know that terrorists have tried–and succeeded–to use the federal bureaucratic Leviathan against itself. Foreigners have overstayed visas; some people have embezzled and cheated the government out of millions. Some have used computers to incite others to commit suicide, or to kill (such as the Slender Man stabbing).
I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of the ways lies can be told, forms faked, credentials obtained, and harm done, when evil deeds are planned.
But everyone is focused on ATF Form 4473 and the NICS. That database processed 23,141,970 checks in 2015, 14,244,240 of which were for firearms purchases. The FBI estimated 27 million guns were bought or sold in 2016. That means about two guns per purchase background check (that seems about right to me). There are not a large number of “loophole” or black market gun sales in America, other than to and by gang members.
Americans buy their guns legally. The laws preventing those who society deem a risk to others from buying guns work if they are enforced. Additional “gun control” accomplishes nothing. It does not stop the more than 500 murders in Chicago, most committed by people who didn’t fill out an ATF Form 4473. It does not stop gangs like MS13 from obtaining semiautomatic weapons.
All it does is make criminals of people who want to follow the law.
The TSA is a poster child of fail
If I can lie on federal forms to harm people, then we face an enforcement problem. This is the same problem we faced on September 12, 2001. The TSA’s budget is currently $7.55 billion. Yet it’s fairly easy to penetrate their security. In July, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, TSA “red team” members aborted their test when the screeners’ failure rate reached 95 percent.
“In most cases, they succeeded in getting the banned items through. 17 out of 18 tries by the undercover federal agents saw explosive materials, fake weapons or drugs pass through TSA screening undetected,” KMSP reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the operation.
The federal government is notoriously inefficient at large-scale projects, which is why billions of dollars gets us bupkis except inconvenience, rudeness and delay from the TSA. Honestly, I’d rather have armed citizens watching out for me than trust the government to prevent nutjobs from getting guns.
Further reading
Texas Church Gunman Once Escaped From Mental Health Facility | New York Times
Surprise! Audit Finds TSA Doesn’t Keep Airports Secure
Most of these incidents occurred at fence lines and airport perimeters — areas that airports themselves, not the federal government, are responsible to keep secure. Security incidents often occurred at smaller airports, but unlike larger airports, the smaller ones do not undergo vulnerability assessments by the FBI and TSA every three years. As the GAO pointed out, ignoring small airports doesn’t make any sense, as a dangerous individual could board a plane in a small airport bound for a larger one.
TSA failed to detect 95 percent of prohibited items at Minneapolis airport: Report – Washington Times
*I am actually, in fact, a licensed private pilot and a licensed ham radio operator–not lying about that.
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