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Devin Kelley Couldn't Get a Carry Permit Because He Beat His Dog
Reason ^ | Nov. 9, 2017 12:30 pm | Jacob Sullum

Posted on 11/09/2017 2:55:54 PM PST by Sopater

After Devin Kelley murdered 26 people at a Texas church on Sunday, Gov. Greg Abbott noted that the killer had unsuccessfully sought a concealed handgun license from the state Department of Public Safety (DPS). "So how was it that he was able to get a gun?" Abbott asked in a CNN interview. "By all the facts that we seem to know, he was not supposed to have access to a gun. So how did this happen?"

The answer, it turns out, is that Kelley's trouble obtaining a carry permit had nothing to do with the 2012 assault convictions that should have prevented him from passing the FBI's background check when he bought his weapons. The Air Force failed to report those court martial convictions to the National Crime Information Center, so the FBI did not know about them, and neither did Texas DPS. But the department discovered that Kelley had been charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty in El Paso County, Colorado, for beating his dog in 2014. The charge was dismissed in 2016 under a deferred judgment after Kelley completed a period of probation. But it was still pending in 2015, when he applied for a carry permit in Texas. The New York Times reports that Texas DPS sought clarification about the case from Kelley, who failed to respond.

A misdemeanor involving mistreatment of an animal (unlike a misdemeanor involving domestic violence) would not have disqualified Kelley from buying a gun under federal law. But the criteria for a Texas carry permit are stricter. People who have been convicted of a Class A or B misdemeanor in the previous five years, for instance, are ineligible for a carry permit, as are applicants who have such charges pending. In Texas animal cruelty can be charged as a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony. In Colorado, where Kelley was living at the time of the charge, it is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The upshot is that Kelley, who was triply disqualified from buying a gun because he beat his wife and son, repeatedly passed the FBI's background check but was unable to get a Texas carry permit because he beat his dog.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2a; kelley; sutherlandsprings
Truncated Title... Full title reads:

"Devin Kelley, Cleared to Buy Guns Despite Beating His Wife and Son, Couldn't Get a Carry Permit Because He Beat His Dog"

1 posted on 11/09/2017 2:55:54 PM PST by Sopater
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To: Sopater

Well, there ya go.


2 posted on 11/09/2017 2:58:25 PM PST by Daffynition (The New PTSD: PRESIDENT-Trump Stress Disorder - The LSN didnÂ’t make Trump, so they can't break him)
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To: Sopater

all we need to do is look at Chicago to see just how miserably totally and completely ‘ gun control’ FAILS

it is such a bad joke it isn’t even funny


3 posted on 11/09/2017 2:59:44 PM PST by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, they're excreted." -- Marcus Tillius Cicero)
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To: Sopater

But what about his Walnut tree?


4 posted on 11/09/2017 2:59:51 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Daffynition

This guy just sounds all-around nasty.


5 posted on 11/09/2017 3:00:17 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Sopater

He ought not to have beat his dog then.


6 posted on 11/09/2017 3:01:31 PM PST by humblegunner
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To: Sopater

That’s a seriously misleading headline.


7 posted on 11/09/2017 3:07:54 PM PST by Not A Snowbird (A year in Arizona... and I haven't burst into flames yet.)
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To: Jamestown1630

I read that he got pets off of Craig’s list to use as target practice.


8 posted on 11/09/2017 3:10:00 PM PST by Rusty0604
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To: Sopater

Show me someone who beats (or shoots ) their dog and I’ll show you someone I’d be perfectly happy to use AS target practice.


9 posted on 11/09/2017 3:11:54 PM PST by RedStateRocker
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To: RedStateRocker

Sounds like in Texas that some forms of animal abuse are felonies. Here in my state one can use deadly force to stop a felony. Too bad it didn’t happen to this punk years ago.


10 posted on 11/09/2017 3:22:06 PM PST by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts FDR's New Deal = obama)
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To: RedStateRocker

>>Show me someone who beats (or shoots ) their dog and I’ll show you someone I’d be perfectly happy to use AS target practice.<<

Agreed. Some people say that anyone who abuses animals deserves to be tortured to death. Personally, I wouldn’t interfere.


11 posted on 11/09/2017 3:23:23 PM PST by fortes fortuna juvat
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To: Sopater

I agree he should never have been able to buy a gun legally, but I don’t kid myself that being prohibited would have stopped him.

The Columbine boys were too young to pass a background check and used a straw purchaser. Adam Lanza, who could have bought a long gun, chose instead to kill his mother for hers.

Background checks are like wetting yourself in a dark pair of trowsers; It gives you a nice warm feeling, but nobody seems to notice.


12 posted on 11/09/2017 3:26:31 PM PST by umgud
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To: Sopater

Well, that settles that. He’s unable to get one because of that. The law is omnipresent, and nobody anywhere is able to violate it at any time.

Wait.. you mean he ignored the laws? How dare he! He must be brought to justice post haste.

Wait... he already killed people? But that’s illegal!

Sorry guys, I can’t keep the stupid going, I don’t want whatever IQ I have left to go away.


13 posted on 11/09/2017 3:33:14 PM PST by wastedyears (US out of the UN, UN out of the US.)
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To: humblegunner

Anybody I see beating their dog gets rudely interrupted by me. Very rudely


14 posted on 11/09/2017 3:43:21 PM PST by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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To: Sopater

The guy was confined to a mental hospital on order from a Judge, from what I am led to believe. If he escaped from a hospital in 2012, why wasn’t he pursued and put back in the hospital or jail. I didn’t know you could just walk away and no one would look for you. If this was jail and he escaped, law enforcement would be looking for him everywhere.

Something is not right with this this scenario.


15 posted on 11/09/2017 3:56:59 PM PST by mia
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To: mia
The guy was confined to a mental hospital on order from a Judge, from what I am led to believe. If he escaped from a hospital in 2012, why wasn’t he pursued and put back in the hospital or jail. I didn’t know you could just walk away and no one would look for you. If this was jail and he escaped, law enforcement would be looking for him everywhere.

You caught that as well - - This story has so many holes in it.

16 posted on 11/09/2017 6:29:09 PM PST by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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