Question

On November 5, 2017 Devin Patrick Kelley walked into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas toting a Ruger AR-556 semi-automatic rifle and fired round after round into the congregation gathered for Sunday morning services. Within a few minutes, he had killed 26 people and injured 20 others. Kelley was later found dead in his SUV with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The attack was the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in Texas, the fifth-deadliest mass shooting in the United States, as well as the deadliest shooting in an American place of worship in modern history. This tragedy could have been avoided. Kelley was prohibited by law from purchasing or possessing firearms and ammunition due to a 2012 domestic violence conviction in a court martial while he was serving in the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force failed to record the conviction in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, which is used by the National Instant Check System (NICS) to flag prohibited gun purchases. This allowed Kelley to pass background checks and purchase four guns, one in each of the past four years. Federally licensed firearm dealers are required to check the credentials of every potential buyer against the NICS system containing millions of criminal history records and protection orders. The system is supposed to flag any potential gun buyer who falls in various categories prohibiting a sale including fugitives, convicted felons, or those with dishonor- able discharges from the military. The Air Force acknowledged that it did not inform federal authorities about the domestic violence conviction, which should have prevented Kelley from buying firearms. Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokesperson, stated that the Air Force would conduct a comprehensive review to ensure records in other cases have been reported correctly. The Defense Department plans to review how all U.S. military services report such cases into the background-check system. Members of the U.S. Senate have called for legislation to improve the completeness of NICS recordkeeping. Individuals familiar with how NICS works observed that large gaps in information sharing between the military and the Justice Department have created a blind spot in background checks of veterans, al- lowing those barred from possessing weapons to get clearance. They believed that the failure to flag Kelley more likely reflected a systemic flaw rather than a one-time miss. Robert Belair, a Washington privacy lawyer and expert on the FBI's background-screening system, said the Air Force and other branches of the military seldom submit court-martial records to the FBI's screening database when the offense doesn't lead to a dishonorable discharge because this has never been a priority for the military. According to a 2016 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the FBI has struggled to collect domestic abuse records for background checks, in part because incomplete or missing criminal histories make it harder to deter- mine if someone should be banned from obtaining a gun. The GAO focused on reporting by state and local authorities and reported that between 2006 and 2015 about 6,700 firearms were incorrectly transferred to individuals with domestic violence records. Federal law requires federal departments, including the military branches, to notify the Justice Department at least quarterly about any records they have showing that someone is disqualified from buying a gun. At the state level, however, compliance is voluntary unless specified by state law or federal funding requirements. It isn't known how many court-martial records are submitted to the FBI, which said it couldn't provide the information. Gaps in databases have also affected other aspects of law enforcement, such as sentencing and parole. The decision to parole O.J. Simpson in October 2 017 is an example. Before voting to release O.J. Simpson from prison after nine years, the Nevada parole board discussed in detail the robbery that had put him behind bars and his conduct as an inmate. Members of the Nevada Board of Parole commissioners stated that before Simpson's 2008 conviction for a Las Vegas hotel robbery, Simpson had no history of a criminal conviction. Although Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the murders of his former wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, in 1989 he had pleaded no contest in Los Angeles to misdemeanor battery of Ms. Simpson, who was then his wife. The Nevada parole board did not have that information. The 1989 conviction was not considered when a four-member panel voted unanimously to release him in October 2017.
agencies. The Justice Department has reported, for example, that states fail to transmit most of their active arrest warrants from their own databases into the federal system and often neglect to update records to show whether cases resulted in convictions. Some states still rely on paper files, making it likelier that they will not end up in the federal electronic records database, a problem that is more common with older records. When states such as Nevada weigh the risk posed by an inmate, they routinely look through their own records, and also check with the NCIC. Mr. Simpson's 1989 conviction did not appear in the NCIC history when Nevada officials prepared a pre-sentencing report after his 2008 conviction. David M. Smith, hearings examiner for the Nevada parole board, said the parole commissioners relied in part on the information in that 2008 report in assessing whether Mr. Simpson should be released. Smith believed it was impossible to tell whether knowledge of Simpson's misdemeanor conviction would have made a difference in the Nevada parole board's decision. Omission of Simpson's 1989 conviction in the federal system again highlights the problem of major gaps in federal criminal databases, which rely primarily on accurate and complete reporting by local and state Sources: Kristina Peterson and Jacob Gershman, "Lapses in Gun Buyers' Records Come Under Scrutiny." Wall Street Journal, November 7, 2017; Melissa Jeltsen, "Air Force Failed to Enter Church Shooter's Domestic Violence Record In U.S. Database, Huffington Post, November 6, 2017; Richard Perez-Pena, "Nevada Parole Board Un- aware of OJ Simpson's Old Conviction," New York Times, August 11, 2017; and Eli Rosenberg, Mark Berman, and Wesley Lowery, "Texas Church Gunman Escaped Mental Health Facility in 2012 after Threatening Military Superiors, Washington Post, November 7, 2017 CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 1. Define the problem described in this case. How serious a problem is it? 2. What management, organization, and technology factors contributed to this problem? 3. What is the political and social impact of incomplete recordkeeping in the FBI NCIC and NICS databases?

Answer 1

1. The problem described in this case is the lack of recording information by the US air force to the  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. The lack of sharing of a vital crime record by Airforce led to such a massacre. If they had informed the bureau that Kelley was court marshal domestic violence, then he would not have been able to purchase four guns consecutively for committing this crime. The problem here is that in not only this case but in other cases also there is lagging by the military departments to furnish this type of important information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Due to this many convicted people can gather arms and ammunition to destroy other people. If this information is provided regularly, then this type of accident can be averted by stopping the person from buying arms, in the initial phase of background checking.

It is a very serious problem, as many innocent people lose their life due to this mistake. These mistakes prove very costly as its price is that of human life.  It should be immediately checked otherwise this type of huge massacre will happen regularly.

2. Management- The management factor that led to this problem is that the management of the military service is not actively cautious to furnish this type of important information about this type of serious conviction, which may have led to this crime. They should have separate departments to look into this matter ie. a department that will solely maintain a database of such conviction and their proofs and will inform the respective bureau about such crime from time to time.

Organization- This factor is also very crucial as expulsion from the military organization or the normal organization defers. A person working in the defense sector is more likely to have an attraction for buying and using ammunitions more than that of a person working in a simple nondefense organization. Due to the lack of furnishing of information about the crime conducted by the people working in these sectors, this type of severe massacres will happen frequently. These types of organizations dealing with defense or military need to be more careful.

Technology- These factors also have a great impact ie. instead of writing in pen and paper if the information is updated on the websites regularly, it becomes available to the bureau immediately and proves to be quite efficient for background checking for burying arms.

3. Political impact for keeping incomplete records are-

1. This slow down the economic development of the country

2. Political parties loose their votes from the people due to lack of prevention of such activities

Social impact-

1. Raises fear among the general public

2. Destroys the trust of the common man towards government

3. Loss of human life and property

4. a feeling of insecurity in society