Posted on 11/18/2017 10:31:51 AM PST by PROCON
The Air Force faces many millions of dollars in potential liability for the mass shooting at a small-town church in Texas earlier this month by a former servicemember, legal experts say.
“I think it’s almost inevitable that the Air Force will be sued,” said retired Lt. Gen. Richard Harding, former judge advocate general of the service. “And I think there’s a case that can be made, you bet.”
If lawsuits against the Air Force were successful, said Don Christensen, the service’s former top prosecutor, the damages could be huge.
“What is being shot while you’re in church, watching your baby be killed — what’s it worth?” Christensen said. “I don’t see how it’s not the biggest financial payout in the history of the Air Force.”
U.S. laws rarely provide for victims of gun violence to seek compensation in civil lawsuits, and the doctrine of sovereign immunity prevents many lawsuits against the government. But this case is exceptional, experts said.
Devin Kelley, who killed and injured scores of parishioners on Nov. 5 in Texas’ worst mass shooting, was convicted of domestic violence assault in 2012 while in the Air Force. Under a 1996 law precluding spouse and child abusers from possessing firearms, the service’s Office of Special Investigations should have entered that conviction into an FBI database.
The office didn’t, the Air Force has acknowledged. What’s more, the acts Kelley pleaded guilty to — breaking his baby stepson’s skull and hitting and kicking his then-wife — were punishable by imprisonment of more than a year. That qualifies them as felonies, which must be entered into the database.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanmilitarynews.com ...
There isn’t enough money
Oh, Merriam-Webster has it somewhat different, a parishioner is “a member or inhabitant of a parish” and a parish is specifically for “a local church community composed of the members or constituents of a Protestant church”
I don’t doubt yours is probably a much more original definition, and theirs is simply reflecting more Left Wing influence.
IMNSHO, the M-W definition reflects total ignorance of the Reformation and certainly didn’t get input from a Southern Baptist preacher.
Do you think the one you used dates back to before the Reformation, which was kicked off what, 500 years and one month ago?
The problem with this thinking is the "would have" and "could have" are vastly different than "did".
In reality he purchased the guns from dealers and actually passed a background check that he should not have. I think this makes the Air Force liable.
“I only want to know if the Air Force is pursuing charges the personnel who failed to properly perform their duties. If not, then personnel will not change their behavior.”
The problem with that is that all of it will likely fall on the low-ranking “implementors” who were probably told by their superiors that they had “more important things” to occupy their time than to send this data to NCIS. The people who need to be charged will be the one’s who had command responsibility in the are where these records were kept, and who had overall responsiblity to see that the laws were carried out faithfully.
No, people who want guns who know that they won't pass a background check just get them from a source that doesn't require a background check. In the state of Texas this simply means buying them from any other citizen who is not a gun dealer or having a friend or family member buy them for you. This is why all this crowing about "background checks" for gun ownership is so ridiculous.
The Air Force is no more responsible for this tragedy than if you sold your car to someone who had a history of drunk driving or sold your old pressure cooker at a garage sale to a Muslim illegal immigrant.
The reason the Air Force might settle if they are sued is because juries in this country like to give deep pocket money to victims regardless of who is to blame and what the law actually says.
Who on earth thinks of watching his baby being killed in terms of "worth"? This is a disturbing mindset.
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