# U.S. Government to Pay $88 Million For Failed Gun Check To Victims of Charleston Church Massacre

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-government-to-pay-88-million-for-failed-gun-check-to-victims-of-charleston-church-massacre/953432>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 29, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-government-to-pay-88-million-for-failed-gun-check-to-victims-of-charleston-church-massacre/953432 "2021-10-29T01:29:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-government-to-pay-88-million-for-failed-gun-check-to-victims-of-charleston-church-massacre/953432/1 "2021-10-29T01:29:36Z")

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> **[Families in Charleston church massacre reach $88M settlement with DOJ](https://www.npr.org/2021/10/28/1050035997/charleston-church-shooting-doj-settlement-families)**
>
> Survivors and families who lost loved ones in the June 2015 attack said the FBI's negligence allowed Dylann Roof to buy the gun he used in the attack.

This is crazy. The government does a massive amount of regulation. It is not possible for the government to provide 100% effectiveness of these regulations. In any event it is the responsibility of the person or business which does the bad thing to pay damages when something bad happens.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-government-to-pay-88-million-for-failed-gun-check-to-victims-of-charleston-church-massacre/953432/2 "2021-10-29T05:36:49Z")

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Evidently some of the bad things here were the mistakes the FBI made. That’s on them.

Oh, and 88 million dollars? That’s an interesting, given the killer is a neo-Nazi.

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**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/u-s-government-to-pay-88-million-for-failed-gun-check-to-victims-of-charleston-church-massacre/953432/3 "2021-10-29T11:47:00Z")

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**"In any event it is the responsibility of the person or business which does the bad thing to pay damages when something bad happens."**

Except in this case, the licensed firearm dealer doesn’t conduct the actual check. They provide the FBI/NICS with the info off of the ATF Form 4473, which the applicant supplies (the info, not the form itself) and fills out, which is then run against the NICS database, and the dealer is then given a yes or no answer by the FBI/NICS over the phone.

And, except for basic driver’s license info, the dealer doesn’t have the intrinsic means to verify if the SSN or any of the yes/no answers to the 4473’s questions are correct/truthful.

Wiki says Roof had no felonies on his record (although he probably could or should have had one based on a prior drug arrest), nor any Misdemeanors for Domestic Violence; as such NICS didn’t flag him for denial-of-sale.