An unprecedented number of people legally forbidden to own weapons managed to buy them in 2020 through the so-called “Charleston breach”, according to data obtained by the defense group Everytown for Gun Safety.
The “loophole” allows arms dealers to complete sales after three days if the buyer’s background check has not been completed by the FBI. If the agency subsequently determines that the buyer should not have been allowed to take the gun, it forwards the case to the Secretariat for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has the task of recovering it. There were 5,807 cases in which arms purchases should have been banned last year until November 3, 2020, at a rate almost double the total of 3,139 in the entire year 2019.
Everytown for Gun Safety obtained the data through a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to ATF on November 3, 2020, which is why the figures do not reflect the entire year.
Rob Wilcox, deputy director of policy and strategy for Everytown, said arms sales and background checks increased in 2020, driven by a confluence crisis: the pandemic, civil unrest and electoral uncertainty.
“When we started to see this increase in sales and background checks, we immediately asked ourselves what it would do with the kind of long-term gaps that are dangerous and have been exacerbated in the past, but have the potential for worse,” Wilcox told CBS. News. “And now we know what we suspected for months: amid the increase in arms sales last year, there have been dramatic increases in the number of sales to people who shouldn’t have guns.”
Each year, the FBI reports thousands of “Charleston breach” cases to the ATF, but the true number of cases is not known. Hundreds of thousands of background checks each year are never completed because the agency is required to clear records after 90 days. Everytown estimates that in 2020, more than 438,000 background checks were eliminated without being completed, more than double that of 2019, approximately 207,000.
It is unclear how many background checks are processed as sales after three days, because some large retailers like Walmart, on their own, do not complete the sale unless the check is completed.
Licensed arms dealers have been submitting background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System since 1998, and most checks are completed quickly. FBI data shows that there were almost 40 million background checks performed in 2020, far more than the average of 26 million in the previous five years. While about 1% of checks resolved in three days are denied, much more, about 5%, are denied when the check lasts between three and 90 days. These denials are mostly for previous crimes or domestic violence, according to Everytown.
Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Tuesday that he plans to introduce legislation to close the “loophole”.
“These statistics are a very strong call to action. Because clearly the ‘Charleston breach’ is becoming a major gateway to the dangerous evasion of background checks,” said the Connecticut Democrat.
The nickname “Charleston gap” is a widely used reference to the June 17, 2015, massacre of nine black worshipers by neo-Nazi Dylann Roof in Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of South Carolina. Roof was banned from buying weapons, but managed to buy the weapon used in the attack when his background check remained incomplete after three days.
Sharon Risher, a reverend whose mother and two cousins were among those murdered by Roof, linked the issue of the “Charleston breach” to America’s broader struggle against racist violence.
“The name ‘Charleston gap’ for me means that you will remember the people who were killed in that church and not forget that white supremacy is at a level we can’t even imagine,” said Risher.
The National Rifle Association and arms rights advocates have argued that delaying the purchase of a weapon beyond the three-day wait can be problematic for people who believe they need a weapon to defend themselves from a potential impending danger.
Risher said the argument ignores the benefits of allowing people to calm down when they may be acting out of anger.
“I am angry that people can do something, not just for black people, but for everyone, and they don’t,” said Risher. “Because we know that armed violence kills more women than anything else. Waiting can be an opportunity for some domestic abuser to calm down before killing a woman or children.”
While Risher hopes that Democratic control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House could give Blumenthal’s legislation a chance, she said she doubts it will succeed.
“To be completely honest, I don’t think it will be done because, if I could, it would have happened before,” said Risher.
Blumenthal acknowledged that he faces difficulties.
“Her point is well-founded because this legislation would require 60 votes in the Senate. In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre (primary school). We managed to get 55 votes for a universal background check bill … so I hardly minimize the difficulty. to collect 60 votes, but this legislation would close the gap that has devastating consequences, and its history shows how horrible and painful these consequences can be, “said Blumenthal.
“Her family members could still be alive today if the sniper had not been able to buy a gun. In other words, if the breach in Charleston was not there,” said Blumenthal.