US Air Force has been ordered to pay the victims of a mass shooting,
a whopping $230 million.
This is in regard to the 2017 Texas church
massacre that claimed the lives of dozens of innocent people.
Now, why was the Air Force held responsible for that shooting?
Will give you those details in just a moment.
But first a little bit of context or
a little reminder of what happened on that tragic day.
More than two dozen people were killed,
including eight Children when Devin Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service at
first Baptist church in Sutherland Springs.
Kelly who died of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound after being
shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at
the church had served in the Air Force before the attack.
And so here's where the Air Force comes in.
Apparently the Air Force was supposed to communicate
the fact that this guy had a record, was dangerous and
should not be able to legally purchase a gun.
They failed to follow through on that,
which is why he was able to legally purchase a gun.
US District Judge Javier Rodriguez had ruled in July that the air force was
60% liable for the attack because it failed to submit Kelly's assault
conviction during the time in the Air Force to a national database.
And by the way his history with violence was awful.
I mean, just I'll give you some of the details.
An Air force record of the Kelly Court Marshall says he pleaded guilty to
multiple specifications of assault, including striking his wife,
choking her with his hands and kicking her.
He also was convicted of striking his stepson on the head and
body with a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm.
But that's not all.
A few months before his conviction in that domestic violence case, Kelly briefly
escaped from a mental health center in New Mexico and got in trouble for
bringing guns onto a military base and threatening his superiors there.
So, I mean, it's not like, there was a minor offense and we forgot to report it.
No, this guy was getting in trouble repeatedly for using violence on people.
>> So it's unclear why they didn't report it, but
a lot of times people think, my God, it would be a shame if his gun
rights were taken away just because he's a violent felon.
People actually think that they think the gun rights are way more important
to protecting everybody else's safety.
He's nearly killed his stepson and his attacking his wife.
Yes, but gun rights are paramount.
And I interviewed someone just earlier today, you saw it on
the conversation who embedded with the militia, and he says, yeah,
they genuinely believe that gun rights are the most central thing in a democracy,
and that every other right is combined is not as important as gun rights.
>> Including the right to live, right.
So this violent persons gun rights, according to some extreme
gun advocates is more important than the lives of the two
dozen individuals who are gunned down by him at a church?
>> Including nearly a dozen kids.
I mean, it's just awful.
So we don't know if that's exactly why the Air Force did this,
whether it was a mistake or whether it was done on purpose for political reasons,
etc, but it's now cost them $230 million.
I don't know how the air force will ever recover.
They've only got hundreds of billions of dollars left now.
>> Each year.
[LAUGH] Right, yeah.
>> And no one ever asked how you're gonna pay for that.
So, but the reality is, by the way, Anna I'm glad that this judgment came in.
I'm glad the family members and the victims are being compensated and
they should be careful about being sure they put the information database and
not just the Air Force, but everyone, right.
But having said that, he would have gotten the guns anyway, it's America,
you know, it if you can get guns anywhere anytime for any reason.
So if he wasn't in the database,
he would have walked two ft down the street and got to a pawn shop or
to swap meet or whatever a gun show and just bought it super easy.
It's Texas, they have loopholes a you're driving a Mack truck through.
>> Yeah, and that's the real issue here, because the argument
that you just made is the same argument that gun advocates would make, right?
They would argue, well, I mean, sure you could have the military report him to
this database, but that wouldn't make a difference.
Anyone who wants to get their hands on a gun can get their hands on a gun.
And that's mostly because of the fact that there are those loopholes in place that
it's incredibly easy to avoid having to do a background check all together and
you can purchase a gun from a private seller, you can purchase a gun from a gun
show without having to worry about a background check.
Those loopholes I think are reasonable loopholes to want to close.
And somehow there's pushback against.
>> Well, as always, the right wing argument is moronic and lacks all logic.
So we pass through loopholes that are so
gigantic that it makes the law meaningless.
So that's why we shouldn't have any law at all.
And if you took it about any other crime, it would make no sense whatsoever.
Yeah, well, we created so many loopholes for rapists to get away that you know,
what we should probably shouldn't have a law against rate.
That is what they're saying about gun control since any lunatic can get their
hands on one because of all the giant loopholes were created in the law.
We shouldn't do any gun control at all and your kids should get murdered in a church
because we eviscerated laws that would protect your family.
It's just as nonsensical.
>> Now, I want to add one more thing,
this lack of reporting is way more common than I'm comfortable with.
So this is not an isolated case.
A 2017 study, for instance,
found widespread negligence in reporting these crimes by the military.
The inspector general looked at more than 2500 criminal convictions in 2015 and
2016 that the military was required to report to the FBI and found
persistent lapses during that two year period ranging from a 14% failure rate for
Air force convictions to a 41% failure rate when it came to the army.
>> They're just not reporting.
When it's that large, then you know it's not just an honest mistake that one or
two clerks made, right?
No, it's systemic because they think, poor criminals,
you don't want to take their gun rights away.
I mean, how would they murder their wives and your wives and
children in a church otherwise?
Gone rights.
It's the gun culture that murdered all those people.
And the next mass shooting, which by the way will be tomorrow,
will also be the fault of gun culture where we're obsessed and
we put killing machines above human lives as a priority in America.
That's what we do systematically and all of the time.
So that's what you have to blame all those murders on.
And that's a fact