OPINION:
Devin Patrick Kelley, the dead shooting suspect in the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs massacre, has now been named by four women as a rapist and sexual harasser.
The more this story comes to light — the more America learns about Kelley — the more it becomes evident this guy just slipped through society’s cracks.
And that leads to the questions: Why wasn’t his name in the FBI’s database? Why was he still able to purchase weapons?
From Breitbart: “Four women came forward in the days following the mass casualty shooting … [in] Texas, revealing previous sexual allegations against the killer. The accusations range from harassment to ’rape by force.’ “
Apparently, one woman told the San Antonio Express-News that she had accused Kelley of “rape by force” in 2013, but that investigations came to a halt “for reasons yet to be determined” before any charges were filed.
Another woman, a former classmate of Kelley’s, told the newspaper he would grope her in the hallways at school, and that she reported the harassment to administrators, but “nothing was ever done.”
But school officials had suspended Kelley for various offenses — six of them — between 2004 and 2009. And all this coming to light adds to the list of offenses and abuses already known about Kelley — that he had received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force, that he had pleaded guilty to domestic assault on his then-wife and stepson, that he had served a 12-month sentence in jail, that he had once spent time in a mental facility, that he had tried to sneak away from that mental facility, that he had made violent threats against his military superiors.
So, once again, why wasn’t his name among the FBI’s database of “Do Not Sell Guns to This Guy?”
Investigators are trying to determine that.
Kelley should not have been legally allowed to buy weapons, given his domestic violence conviction. But he bought at least four.
And yet Democrats, like Rep. Ted Lieu, are using this tragedy to campaign for more gun control — specifically, for universal background checks.
If anything, Kelley’s murderous rampage shows background checks are prone to error.
If anything, the takeaway should be — once again — this: Humans, not guns, are responsible for shooting deaths. The condition of the human heart, the human mind, are what’s to blame. And you can’t legislate away crazy.
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