A Colorado gun shop owner who once sold a gun to the Texas church shooter says he relied on federal and state systems to vet the customer.
Devin Kelley’s 2012 conviction on two counts of domestic assault should have prevented him from buying weapons, including the one he used in the massacre, but the Air Force failed to report his court martial convictions to the FBI. His information was therefore missing from a national database, enabling him to pass background checks.
Jeffrey Lepp, who owns Specialty Sports & Supply in Colorado Springs, sold Kelley a Glock 9-mm. handgun in December 2014.
“Realistically, the Air Force didn’t submit paperwork on him on the NICS system,” Lepp said, referring to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the federal system that determines who is eligible to buy firearms.
The state of Colorado performs an additional background check on prospective gun buyers that searches for local offenses, including unpaid parking tickets.
“We did a background check, he passed the full background system and, at that point, there is no legal reason to not turn this firearm over to him. And separately, while nobody remembers this fellow at all, he would not have behaved inappropriately in any way while he was in the store, otherwise we would have said, ‘we cannot help you,’ ” Lepp told the Daily News.