Latest news with #backgroundcheck
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
SC congressman again proposes closing ‘loophole' that allowed Charleston shooter to buy gun
Rep. Jim Clyburn speaks at his annual fish fry on Friday May 30, 2025. (Photo by Shaun Chornobroff/SC daily Gazette) A decade after nine people were gunned down in a Charleston church, South Carolina's lone Democrat in Congress is launching another effort to close the loophole that allowed the hate-filled shooter to purchase his gun. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, accompanied by a quartet of House Democrats, announced Tuesday the latest proposal to give the FBI longer to complete a background check. Instead of letting a gun sale go through after three business days, the bill would give the FBI up to 20 business days to verify whether a customer checks out. A longer background check may have prevented the tragedy that shocked the nation June 17, 2015. A drug arrest should've prevented then-21-year-old Dylann Roof from buying the gun he used to kill people gathered for a Wednesday night Bible study at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston. But an FBI investigator didn't determine that in time to stop the sale. 'These were all constituents of mine, some of whom I knew very personally,' Clyburn, whose 6th District includes the historic Black church, said at a news conference in Washington, D.C. 'With the kind of background check we are talking about today, we would have prevented that because he would have never gotten a gun.' The gunman, an avowed white supremacist who wanted to start a race war, 'had cased the church. He had researched the church,' Clyburn said one week ahead of the 10-year anniversary. 'And he picked this church because of its history.' A federal jury convicted Roof in December 2016 on 33 counts of federal hate crimes and firearms charges. Weeks later, jurors sentenced him to death. He is among just three inmates left on federal death row after President Joe Biden pardoned 37 other prisoners in December. SC activists call for expanded gun background checks a decade after Mother Emanuel slaying In the aftermath of the shooting, the federal law allowing a licensed firearm dealer to continue with a sale after three days — regardless of whether the check has been completed — became known as the Charleston loophole. State and federal proposals to give the FBI more time have failed repeatedly. A month after the massacre, FBI Director James Comey outlined the clerical errors and jurisdictional confusion that let the gun sale go through, saying 'The bottom line is clear: Dylann Roof should not have been able to legally buy that gun that day.' Then-Gov. Nikki Haley said that knowledge made her 'literally sick to my stomach.' Her response was to criticize the FBI for still relying on paperwork, saying technology, not more time, is the solution. Pro-gun lobbying groups, including the National Rifle Association, remain staunchly opposed to extending background checks, arguing extended checks could put people in danger as they wait. The NRA has also noted that two months lapsed between Roof buying the gun and the shooting. The group contends extending the three-day required wait would not have stopped him. Nationwide, 22 states have either extended the wait for a background check beyond three days or eliminated the ability for a sale to proceed before a check is complete, no matter how long it takes, according to the gun safety nonprofit Everytown. In the Southeast, those states include Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. The bill Clyburn announced Tuesday is very similar to legislation that passed the U.S. House in 2019 and 2021, when Democrats controlled the chamber. Neither got a vote on the Senate floor. Legislation he introduced in 2023, after Republicans regained control of the House, never made it out of committee. At the news conference, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries pleaded for Republicans to support the bill. 'The gun violence epidemic that has ravaged America for far too long in such horrific ways, in such deeply personal ways, in such searing ways, requires an aggressive, commonsense response,' said the New York Democrat, adding, 'We just need a handful of Republicans to join us.'
CTV News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- CTV News
Sweden's new national security adviser quits over dating site images
OSLO -- Sweden's new national security adviser abruptly resigned on Friday, just one day after his appointment, amid criticism from the prime minister that he failed to disclose information regarding images published years ago on a dating website. Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said. The resignation comes just months after Thyberg's predecessor in the high-profile job stepped down and was charged with negligent handling of classified information. Thyberg did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment on Friday. But in a statement to daily Dagens Nyheter, Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images. 'These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not,' he said, according to DN. Reuters could not independently verify information about the content of the images. Background checks for sensitive government jobs typically require the disclosure of any information that could potentially make someone vulnerable to blackmail. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the information should have come to light a long time ago. 'It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward,' Kristersson told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Norway. Thyberg had been due to travel to Oslo on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting of northern European leaders, but the adviser's participation was cancelled. Reporting by Terje Solsvik; Editing by Alex Richardson, Reuters
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Sweden's national security adviser quits over dating site images one day into job
Sweden 's new national security adviser abruptly resigned on Friday, just one day after his appointment, amid criticism from the prime minister that he failed to disclose information regarding images published years ago on a dating website. Tobias Thyberg, a foreign service veteran who in previous roles served as ambassador to both Ukraine and Afghanistan, had omitted the information during security background checks, the government said. The resignation comes just months after Thyberg's predecessor in the high-profile job stepped down and was charged with negligent handling of classified information. Thyberg did not immediately respond requests for comment on Friday. But in a statement to daily Dagens Nyheter, Thyberg said that he had failed to disclose the existence of the images. "These are old pictures from an account I previously had on the dating site Grindr. I should have informed about this, but I did not," he said, according to DN. Background checks for sensitive government jobs typically require the disclosure of any information that could potentially make someone vulnerable to blackmail. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the information should have come to light a long time ago. "It is a systemic failure that this kind of information has not been brought forward," Kristersson told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Norway. Thyberg had been due to travel to Oslo on Friday with the prime minister for a meeting of northern European leaders, but the adviser's participation was cancelled. On Thursday Sweden said it will donate 20 million crowns ($2.1 million) to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after the administration of President Donald Trump ordered a freeze of federal grants to the media outlet. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty was set up during the Cold War to reach people in communist-run states. The Prague-based outlet broadcasts to countries in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine. "This decision is part of our continued work to support journalists and independent media," the Swedish government said in a statement. "After the U.S. withdrew its support for Radio Free Europe, people in many countries risk losing access to free media," it said. President Trump in March ordered the termination of the grants as part of sweeping efforts to downsize the U.S. government, in what may devastate a rare source of reliable news in authoritarian countries.
