Gun Background Check Failure

Dylann Roof, who is accused of killing nine people at a church in South Carolina three weeks ago, was only able to purchase the gun used in the attack because of lapses in the FBI’s background-check system, FBI Director James B. Comey said Friday.

Comey said that Roof should have been prevented from buying the .45-caliber weapon used in a shooting that authorities have said was motivated by Roof’s racist views. The political repercussions of the June 17 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston led South Carolina...

In an extraordinary acknowledgement of cascading bureaucratic failures, FBI Director James Comey said Friday that Dylann Roof should not have been able to purchase the gun police say he used in the June 17 Charleston, S.C., massacre.

Comey said an arrest record detailing Roof's March 1 drug arrest by the Columbia, S.C., Police Department was not included in materials reviewed by the FBI's National Instant Check System, which performs criminal background investigations on gun purchasers in 30 states. The contents of the record, the FBI director said, would have prohibited...