[Editor’s Note: An excerpt from the Sun-Sentinel describing the security licenses and the processes by which the Pulse Nightclub shooter obtained those licenses has been removed due to potential inaccuracies.]
On Monday, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) suggested that a “comprehensive universal background check” would have stopped the Pulse Nightclub shooter from obtaining a gun:
Well, at a time like this of the deaths of several people, I’m not gonna get into the politics but I can tell you what I believe that we should do.
At the very least, just common sense would tell you we ought a have a law that is a comprehensive universal background check in the acquisition or purchase of a gun. That would have caught [the Pulse Nightclub shooter]. A comprehensive background check may have caught some of the mental health problems of the killer in the high school in Parkland because he had not been adjudicated mentally incompetent. That did not come up on the comprehensive background check.
So, I am hopeful that eventually, senators are gonna come to their senses and that we can get a comprehensive background check law passed.
Here’s the problem with Nelson’s statement — the Pulse Nightclub shooter did pass a background check, and “had two security licenses, one of which allowed him to be armed while on duty,” reports the Associated Press.
Additionally, per the Associated Press: “The FBI investigated [the Pulse Nightclub shooter] in 2013 and 2014 after co-workers shared concerns about statements he had made concerning possible ties to terrorist groups. Neither inquiry led to criminal charges.”
The Parkland shooter also passed a background check despite him having allegedly had interactions with a mental health facility. Approximately one month before the massacre, the FBI received a tip that the shooter had made disturbing comments regarding school violence, but the “bureau did not appropriately follow established protocols in following up on the tip,” reports CNN.
Given these facts, what exactly does Sen. Nelson believe would have stopped these shooters? What does he want a “comprehensive universal background check” to accomplish that current background checks do not?
It’s unclear if Nelson is suggesting that an FBI inquiry that didn’t ultimately lead to any charges should prohibit an American from purchasing a firearm, or if he is suggesting that an individual who has had interactions with the mental health system, but was never adjudicated mentally unfit, should be prohibited from purchasing firearms.
The Daily Wire reached out to Nelson’s office for comment, but as of publication they have not replied.