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Dr. Who
11-28-2017, 08:12 PM
Parents of one of the victims killed in the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at a Texas church filed a claim on Tuesday against the U.S. Air Force in what appeared to be the first legal action in connection to the incident.

The administrative claim, which was filed directly with the Air Force in Washington, said the military acted negligently when it failed to report the criminal record of gunman Devin Kelly to a federal database that would have prevented him from legally purchasing a firearm.

Kelly killed 26 people and wounded more than 20 at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

The Air Force said in a statement it did not comment on specific claims. “Every claim that is filed is thoroughly processed and researched in accordance with established law and regulations,” said Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman.



https://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-shooting-lawsuit/texas-victims-family-files-first-claim-against-u-s-air-force-over-church-massacre-idUSKBN1DS32C

This is not surprising. The AF cannot claim legal immunity. The plaintiffs lost their son and 9 relatives in the shooting. I expect that there will be more suits filed by other members of that community. The AF (US Govt) should avoid the cost of litigation and just create a settlement package for the members of the town that lost loved ones and save themselves more bad publicity.

Peter1469
11-28-2017, 08:48 PM
Not sure if this claim would fly in court.

But I expect the Air Force's administrative process will be fair.

resister
11-28-2017, 10:42 PM
Could an AF lawyer point to the huge # of instances of criminals illegally obtaining arms and make the case, he would of got the gun, one way or another?

I would speculate, the burden of proof would be, Negligence by the AF clerks, was the only way he obtained the guns.

Don
11-29-2017, 12:24 AM
I feel for the victims but I don't think any laws would stop a guy like the nut who went on that murder spree. He would have found a way to get his guns. The country is in a moral decline which is why we see so many of these senseless attacks. But guys like the one that shot up that church are a special case and there probably isn't much we can do about it when they crack.

Occasionally they will pop up and commit their atrocities and they will figure out a way to do it no matter what we do.

Like this guy in 1927 (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1927-bombing-remains-americas-deadliest-school-massacre-180963355/)

He killed 44 people including 38 school children. Or this guy in Colorado in 2009

https://youtu.be/ZXKAleVdp6s

Or the guy in San Diego who went on a rampage in a stolen tank in 1995.

https://youtu.be/dIlMeojTAA4

waltky
11-29-2017, 07:51 AM
Air Force more than a little lax in reporting dangerous discharges...
:angry:
AF: Failure to Report Church Shooter 'Was Not an Isolated Incident'
28 Nov 2017 | The latest revelation has prompted the Air Force to take corrective actions in what will be a months-long review process.


Officials at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, did not properly report criminal information to the civilian authorities about Texas church shooter and former airman Devin P. Kelley, a preliminary service investigation has found. "The Air Force's review of its reporting processes to civilian law enforcement in the Devin P. Kelley case has prompted immediate actions to correct reporting deficiencies and prevent future occurrences," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in a statement on Tuesday. She said that based on initial findings in the case's chain, the Air Force Inspector General confirmed that "the [Office of Special Investigations] and Security Forces personnel then assigned at Holloman did not report required information." "The review also found the error in the Kelley case was not an isolated incident and similar reporting lapses occurred at other locations," Stefanek said. "Although policies and procedures requiring reporting were in place, training and compliance measures were lacking," she said.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein have directed OSI and Security Forces officials to conduct reviews of all airmen with "reportable offenses" dating back to 2002, the statement said. Two tasks forces of 30 members from each organization are working the action -- which could result in a review of some 60,000 records. "The Air Force has reported and corrected several dozen records since the review began and is reviewing approximately 60,000 cases involving serious offenses over the 15-year period to ensure full compliance," Stefanek said in a follow-up email. The revelation about training failures has prompted the Air Force to take corrective actions in what will be a months-long process as the broader Defense Department review proceeds.


http://images04.military.com/media/global/newscred/devin-patrick-kelley-2400-06-nov-2017-ts600.jpeg
Devin Patrick Kelley, the suspect in the shootings at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas

Aside from the task force, one of the new procedures is to establish a leadership requirement at the field, regional and headquarters levels "to verify that information from applicable cases is registered with the FBI's National Crime Information Center's Interstate Identification Index," Stefanek said. "Additionally, supporting software, checklist and training changes were made to support the new procedures," she said.

Earlier this month, the service said it was likely that Kelley's domestic violence offense was not entered into the NCIC database -- an electronic clearinghouse of crime data that can be tapped into by virtually every criminal justice agency, according to its website. Because the agency wasn't aware of his criminal record, Kelley was able to buy an assault rifle-style weapon used in the mass shooting on Nov. 5, described as the deadliest ever to occur in Texas. Armed with a Ruger AR-556 rifle and wearing black tactical gear, Kelley -- who served in the Air Force from 2010 until May 2014, when he was court-martialed -- entered First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs around 11:20 a.m. that Sunday and started shooting congregants during the service, killing at least 26 people and wounded numerous others.

NCIC lapse (http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/11/28/af-failure-report-church-shooter-was-not-isolated-incident.html)

Standing Wolf
11-29-2017, 08:02 AM
There probably isn't any practical way to halt or mitigate it, but I think one of the major reasons for the exponential increase in mass shootings is the tremendous, unrelenting national media coverage that they receive. To an already warped mind, doing something like that may seem like a good way to make one's mark - to achieve the celebrity ("infamy" being one of those words you seldom hear these days) that appears to be everybody's goal.

DGUtley
11-29-2017, 08:06 AM
In Ohio, there's something called the Public Duty / Private Duty dichotomy. To recover the claimant must prove that the alleged tortfeasor (Defendant) owed the claimant a specific private duty, rather than a general public duty. I don't see how these statutes created a duty owed by the AF to individuals.