According to Vice President Mike Pence, the Air Force is “moving aggressively” to assess the errors which made it possible for the Texas attacker who committed the mass church shooting to buy firearm.
“We now know it was a crime that the assailant was ever able to purchase a firearm in the first place. He lied on his application, had a history of mental illness and there were bureaucratic failures,” the vice president said.
Pence added that the Air Force is to finish its review sooner than anticipated, in only days and that a separate evaluation is being done by the Department of Defense. He also referred to the fact that the Air Force failed to enter information about Devin Kelley in FBI’s National Criminal Information Center database. In 2012 Kelly was court-martialed for domestic violence, and if this information was in the database, it would have been much more difficult for him to purchase firearms.
“We will find out why this information was not properly reported in 2012,” Pence said and assured people they were working with Congress to make sure such incidents don’t happen again.
During his visit to Sutherland Springs, the vice president also reported that over 100 FBI employees were investigating the incident and promised the citizens of the Texas community “the full measure of federal resources.” Pence delivered a speech as part of a news conference in which he told the people of Sutherland Springs “the American people are with you. We will never leave your side.” He called the tragic event as “evil” but pointed out that “faith is stronger than evil and no act of violence will diminish the strength of the American people.”
Pence visited Texas on Wednesday where he met with the injured victims in Brooke Army Medical Center, while later on he, his wife and Texas officials met with victims’ families. After the attack Democratic lawmakers have renewed their calls for gun control measures.
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