Air Force Mistake Allowed Church Shooter to Buy Gun Despite Domestic Violence Record: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Life’s been crazy lately.”

—Houston Astros infielder Alex Bregman to ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday, according to the Houston Chronicle. Bregman, 23, helped the Astros win the World Series last week.

BIG NEWS

Twenty-six crosses stand in a field on the edge of town to honor the 26 victims killed at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on November 6, 2017 in Sutherland Springs, Texas.Scott Olson/Getty

Grave Error
The shooter who killed 26 people inside the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs on Sunday morning used a gun that he shouldn’t have been able to purchase. Devin Patrick Kelley was convicted in military court in 2012 for domestic assault on his wife and toddler stepson (he cracked his stepson’s skull). That should have barred him from legally purchasing the four guns he bought in the last four years, including the Ruger AR-556, a military-style assault rifle he used in the mass shooting, which he purchased at an Academy Sports & Outdoors store in San Antonio. A spokesperson for Academy told the New York Times that Kelley bought one gun each from two stores in San Antonio in the last two years, and both sales were approved by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He bought two other guns since his Air Force court-martial, both in Colorado. His Texas application for a License to Carry a Handgun was rejected for unknown reasons, but in Texas, you don’t need a permit to carry a rifle. The Air Force admitted to the Times on Monday that it failed to enter Kelley’s domestic violence conviction into a federal database that could have prevented him from purchasing a gun. “The Air Force has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former Airman Devin P. Kelley following his 2012 domestic violence conviction,” the Air Force said in a statement, adding that Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff General David Goldfein have ordered the Air Force inspector general to “conduct a complete review of the Kelley case.” The Air Force is also looking into whether other convictions have mistakenly gone unreported to the federal database for firearms background checks.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

New Challenger?
Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez has emerged as a potential Democratic opponent for Governor Greg Abbott in the 2018 election. Valdez said on Monday that she might be interested in running against Abbott, telling the Texas Tribune that she’s “in the exploratory process” and is looking at data on a possible campaign. “Too much of one thing corrupts, and I’m a strong believer in a two-party system,” Valdez said. “I’m hoping that enough people are seeing that too much one-sided is not healthy for Texas.” She has 34 days left to file if she wants to run. Valdez was elected in 2004, and is serving her fourth term as sheriff of Dallas County. She’s one of only a few female sheriffs in Texas and is the only Hispanic female sheriff in the country, according to the Tribune. Valdez is best known outside of Dallas for publicly sparring with Abbott over Texas’s anti-sanctuary city policies, which will likely remain a hot-button issue in the 2018 gubernatorial race.

Threat Thwarted
A Dallas man was arrested near the White House in Washington, D.C. on Monday after allegedly threatening to kill white police officers, according to the Dallas Morning News. Police in Montgomery County, Maryland, had alerted authorities Monday afternoon to be on the lookout for 37-year-old Michael Arega, and he was detained and arrested without incident on Pennsylvania Avenue by Secret Service. He had allegedly posted on Facebook that he was traveling to D.C. to “kill all white police,” and that President Donald Trump should be put in jail. A later Facebook post showed him checking in to the White House on Monday afternoon. According to CNN, Arega’s ex-wife had alerted police from her home in Texas, telling police that she was worried about Arega’s mental and emotional health because he had stopped taking his prescribed medications. Arega was unarmed at the time of his arrest, and was charged with making felony threats.

QB Controversy
It looks as though Colin Kaepernick won’t play for the Houston Texans. After losing star rookie Deshaun Watson to a season-ending injury and suffering through a sub-par performance by backup Tom Savage in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday (Savage told reporters after the game that he “played like crap,” and, well, he was right), the team discussed whether to sign the free agent quarterback. Kaepernick led San Francisco to the Super Bowl in 2013 but has remained without a team this season after he sat during the pregame national anthem last year in protest of racial injustice, inspiring similar protests league-wide. According to the Houston Chronicle, Texans coach Bill O’Brien and general manager Rick Smith have discussed internally the possibility of bringing Kaepernick on board, but decided against it. “I would tell you that I like the guys that we have and we’re going to continue to coach them and try to do a better job of coaching them,” O’Brien told the Chronicle, when asked whether Kaepernick would help the Texans. “We scrimmaged against him last year when we went out to San Francisco. Spoke to him, I’ve known him for a long time . . . Colin Kaepernick’s a good football player, hasn’t played football in a while. These things are discussed daily and they’ll continue to be discussed.”