From CeaseFirePA (http://www.ceasefirepa.org):
Five years ago, congregants at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC welcomed a stranger to join them for bible study. The 21 year old white man with sandy-blond hair didn’t look like the typical member of their historically black church, but they invited him to join them in prayer anyway. An hour later, he aimed a gun at 87-year-old Susie Jackson. Her nephew jumped in front of her. They were both killed, along with 7 other worshippers.
This unspeakable tragedy could have been prevented¹; a loophole in current law allows some guns to be transferred even when a background check is unfinished, as long as 72 hours has passed. That loophole allowed this murderer to buy his gun. Go to https://ceasefirepa.salsalabs.org/closethecharlestonloophole/index.htmlto tell Pat Toomey: It’s time to close the Charleston Loophole.
Here’s how the Charleston Loophole works. Under federal law, people must get a FBI background check to buy a gun from a licensed dealer. That must happen within three days–but when it isn’t completed, dealers can still sell the firearm.
In 2018, three percent of FBI background checks took longer than the allotted time period. It sounds small, but that covered 276,000 sales. And while some responsible sellers refuse to sell the gun, that’s not what happened in Charleston. That failure killed Susie Jackson, her nephew, and 7 other worshippers.
The tragedy at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church did not have to happen. Closing the Charleston loophole is a simple and easy fix. But too many of our leaders are listening to the gun-rights activists who are not even willing to wait three days to buy a gun.
The best way to honor the nine murdered in Charleston is by closing this loophole.
¹Elizabeth Landers, “House passes ‘Charleston loophole bill’ on gun background checks” CNN, Feb. 28, 2019
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