Over the weekend another white male murdered a couple dozen or so people, half of them children. It would be interesting if it did not regularly happen, and if it was not apparently accepted by the majority of people as collateral damage. The conservatives are out saying how lucky these people were to die at church. Of course in Texas evangelicals are supposed to always be carrying, even in church, and openly as well, so maybe it was a lack of faith in the gun that killed them.
So it is complicated, and there is evidently no consensus that a white man killing a dozen or so children is such a bad thing that taking simple steps, like extreme vetting of gun owners, is necessary. After all, mass murder only happens like once a month or so, so why freak about it?
What we should have a a consensus on, however, is that our government, especially our military, should have to follow the rules of law, and when they don't there should be significant consequences.
In this case we now know that the USAF did not enter a conviction into the criminal database, a conviction that should have prevented a killer from purchasing a gun. The USAF says this was simply an oversight, an oversight that may have cost a dozen children their lives. It would be simple to accept their account of incompetence and move on, but history tells us it is just as likely a continuation of their macho culture to protect men who assault women.
There are really only two possibilities here, either which requires significant action by congress. The most charitable explanation is that the USAF is incompetent and is not able to develop reliable procedures to insure that it complies with laws. It could be that they do not respect the laws, or they are lack the expertise to create and enforce reliable process. While this is not criminal, it should scare all of use that the USAF does not have the skill and tracking to make sure a database is updated.
The second is that the USAF failed to update the database intentionally, perhaps to protect the criminal, perhaps to make oversight more difficult. If this was done on purpose, if this is a coverup, if the USAF is misleading the public about it’s member sexually assaulting women.
I understand mistakes happen. It could be that the one man who beat his wife, was convicted for the crime, and then went on to murder dozens of children and adults, was the one man who happened to not have been entered into the criminal database by the military. Or it could be that the military simply does not value the rule of law. Or it could be that the military is actively protecting wife beaters and rapists.
At this point we don’t really know. What is clear is we can’t depend on the military to conduct a full investigation with credible deliverables. Congress must step in their role of oversight and determine, with great fidelity, the truth of why this criminal was allowed to purchase a weapon legally.
