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Sessions orders review of background check system for guns

Posted at 6:04 PM, Nov 22, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-22 18:04:43-05

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is ordering a far-ranging review of the FBI database containing information for use in background checks on prospective gun buyers.

The move Wednesday comes after the Air Force acknowledged that a man who killed more than two dozen people in a south Texas church should have had his name and domestic violence conviction submitted to the database. That might have prevented him from buying guns.

In a memo, Sessions directed the FBI and ATF to determine if other government agencies are failing to report information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He also wants a report detailing the number of times the agencies investigate people for lying on their gun-purchase applications.

The Pentagon’s inspector general is separately reviewing the case of the Texas gunman.