FBI missed chance to stop Dylann Roof's gun purchase

Joe Copeland • Feb 6, 2018

Feb 6, 2018

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                <h1>FBI missed chance to stop Dylann Roof's gun purchase</h1>
                <h2><p>FBI Director James Comey says problems with records contributed to letting Dylann Roof slip through a gun purchase background check that should have disqualified him from buying the weapon used to kill nine people in Charleston, South Carolina. A veteran agency worker made a number of attempts to get more</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Feb 6, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>FBI Director James Comey says problems with records contributed to letting Dylann Roof slip through a gun purchase background check that should have disqualified him from buying the weapon used to kill nine people in Charleston, South Carolina. A veteran agency worker made a number of attempts to get more information about him but the records misdirected some of her records; an attempt to contact the county prosecutor's office reportedly produced no response, although the circumstances aren't clear. The details are still sketchy but <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/10/fbi-chief-roof-gun-shooting/29966337/?ref=avalancheghost.one">USA Today provides </a>a particularly good initial account.</p>
          </article>

FBI Director James Comey says problems with records contributed to letting Dylann Roof slip through a gun purchase background check that should have disqualified him from buying the weapon used to kill nine people in Charleston, South Carolina. A veteran agency worker made a number of attempts to get more information about him but the records misdirected some of her records; an attempt to contact the county prosecutor's office reportedly produced no response, although the circumstances aren't clear. The details are still sketchy but USA Today provides a particularly good initial account.

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By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi