In 2017, when Barack Hussein Obama, who was acclaimed by leftists worldwide, was still in office as US President, the status of half a million criminals in the NICS criminal record was changed from “fugitive from justice” to “clean record”. This gave them legal access to gun purchases. The rumor is circulating on social media that it happened only about sex offenders traded – that’s not true.
A comment by Willi Huber
Disintegration of peaceful social structures, discrimination against law-abiding taxpayers and kid gloves for criminals. This is the undeniable program of the political left worldwide. The well-being of criminals is clearly more important to all the politicians who have allied themselves with this side than the protection of the non-criminal population. It is often heard that offenders are only ill or that one should have sympathy for them because of their past history. There are various feel-good programs for criminals, and their victims are left behind.
The great pillar saint of the US and of all left-wing forces worldwide, Barack Hussein Obama, remained true to this tradition. In 2017 the Justice Department and the FBI worked hand in handto erase the names of half a million criminals from the database. They ended up there because they were wanted by the judiciary, but were able to evade questioning or arrest by fleeing to another state. This is possible, among other things, because minor crimes in the USA can only be searched for in some but not all states.
The background to the measure was that people with a record as a fugitive from justice were not allowed to buy weapons. Apparently, however, it was very important to the Obama administration that criminals also obtain firearms legally, while attempts are repeatedly made to make it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to obtain weapons. The Justice Department and FBI argued that current laws were too vague and needed to be fixed:
The FBI, which runs the criminal background check database, had a broad definition, saying anyone with a pending warrant is barred from buying a gun. But ATF argued that a person is only considered a fugitive under the law if they have an outstanding warrant and have also traveled to another state.
Washington Post
On February 15, 2017, the FBI ordered the Criminal Justice Intelligence Division to remove all fugitives from the database used to verify the legitimacy of gun purchases. New entries in the NICS database have been prohibited until further notice. After this measure, 788 entries out of 500,000 offenders remained.
As a result of the measure, several cases of fatal gun violence became known in which the perpetrators should not have owned any weapons under current law. Due to a lack of communication with the authorities, possibly also due to the missing NICS entries, they were able to arm themselves and murder quite legally:
Two years ago, Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, SC, was able to buy his gun after mistakes by the FBI and local law enforcement resulted in his name not being included in criminal records databases when he was previously arrested for drug possession.
Washington Post
It wasn’t until Donald Trump came into office that the Justice Department made it possible to ban gun sales for those “who have fled across state lines to avoid prosecution for a crime or testimony in a criminal proceeding.” (Washington Post).
According to the Washington Post, the problem was later resolved at an unspecified time, and 430,000 people were once again banned from using weapons. In the 70,000 remaining cases, they wanted to investigate to find out whether people from this group had armed themselves in the meantime.
