Sessions orders review of background check system for guns

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 today 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.