Victims of a shooting in Charleston may sue the United States for the purchase of a firearm: the court

(Reuters) – Survivors of a mass shootout in a South Carolina church in 2015 may sue the US government for allegedly neglecting it by allowing Dylann Roof to buy the gun that 's being used. he had used to kill nine African-Americans, a federal court of appeal announced Friday.

The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals stated that the government was not exempt from liability under the Federal Compensation Claims Act (FTCA) or the Brady Act to prevent violence with handguns.

Friday's decision by a three-judge panel reopened 16 lawsuits challenging how the government controlled potential gun buyers, including the FBI's management of the national system for instant background checks criminals (NICS).

The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

William Wilkins, a former chief justice of the 4th Circuit representing the victims, said that the Congress had instructed the FBI to adopt a procedure aimed at "preventing people like Roof from obtaining assassin weapons".

"The government must do what the law requires," Wilkins said in an interview. "He was not able to do that in this case."

Roof, a white supremacist, was admitted to a Bible study session at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015, where he then used his .45 caliber Glock semi-automatic pistol. during the shooting.

The victims stated that a proper background check would have shown that Mr. Roof had recently admitted his possession of drugs, which would have prevented him from purchasing his gun from an authorized dealer. by the federal government two months earlier.

Chief Justice Roger Gregory wrote before the Richmond Court of Appeal in Virginia that no one disputed that a proper check would have stopped Roof.

But he added that US Judge Richard Gergel of the Charleston US District was wrong to cancel the immunity lawsuit in June 2018, even as Gergel blamed the government's "extremely catastrophic political choices" in managing the system. background check.

Gregory stated that the case was based on the alleged negligence of the NICS examiner, who had neglected the mandatory procedures. "The government can not claim any immunity in these circumstances," he wrote.

Constituency judge, G. Steven Agee, partially disagreed, saying the government was not immune from the Brady law's claims, but that Gergel had properly dismissed the case of the FTCA.

Roof, now 25, was sentenced to death in January 2017 after being convicted of 33 federal charges related to shootings, including hate crimes. Three months later, he pled guilty and convicted of murder. He was sentenced to nine life sentences with no possibility of parole.