7/8/21 The Air Force is 60% Responsible for a 2017 Church Massacre, Judge Rules

It's hard to forget the photos and headlines. A Baptist church in small-town Sutherland Springs, TX lost 26 of its members one November Sunday to a man armed with three guns, who came into the sanctuary during a service and opened fire. At least 12 of the victims were children. Another 22 were wounded.

The perpetrator killed himself. He was Devin Patrick Kelley. He'd been in the Air Force for several years, but he was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts of assault on his spouse and assault on their child. He received a bad conduct discharge and confinement for 12 months.

But the Air Force made, literally, a fatal mistake. It failed to add Kelley's criminal history to the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which gun sellers are required to check before selling firearms. Legally, Kelley wasn't qualified to purchase a gun, but the sellers wouldn't have known it from the database. The omission violated the federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, enacted in 1993, which requires federal agencies to report people who cannot legally be sold a gun for reasons that include a domestic violence conviction or dishonorable discharge from the military.

In 2018, the survivors and families of the dead filed a civil suit against the Air Force. In 2020, the courts ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, saying that the Air Force had failed to "exercise reasonable care" by not submitting Kelley's information to the FBI, which runs the NICS. Essentially, it was permission to continue with the lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez gave a further go-ahead, ruling that Kelley was only 40 percent responsible for the shooting; the U.S. government was 60 percent responsible. "Moreover, the evidence shows that — had the Government done its job and properly reported Kelley’s information into the background check system — it is more likely than not that Kelley would have been deterred from carrying out the Church shooting," Rodriguez wrote.

While this part of the lawsuit was a bench trial, there is more to come. The case will go on to a trial phase to determine the compensation owed to the plaintiffs.

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/561856-judge-rules-us-air-force-responsible-for-2017-mass-shooting-at-a?rl=1