House Passes "Charleston Loophole" Bill, But Debate Continues Over ...

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House passes "Charleston loophole" bill, but debate continues over its usefulness

by Caroline Balchunas

Fri, March 12, 2021 at 7:27 PMThe U.S. House passed two bills this week that would tighten gun sale regulations. (WCIV)Comment on this story0CommentShare storyShare

topics:

• Dylann Roof
• Jim Clyburn
• Nancy Mace
• South Carolina,United States
• Summerville
• Tom Rice
• Arlyn Pendergast
• H.R.

U.S. Congressional House members were focused on gun violence this week, passing two bills that would tighten gun sale regulations including one known as the “Charleston Loophole.”

It’s something lawmakers have been pushing for since the Mother Emanuel tragedy in 2015. The Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 passed 219-to-210 on Thursday.

U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn authored the bill. He said it would close the Charleston Loophole, a gap in federal law that allows gun sales to proceed without a completed background check after three days. It’s believed the loophole allowed the shooter Dylann Roof to purchase the gun he used to kill nine people at Mother Emanuel AME Church.

Clyburn has introduced the bill four times since the 2015 tragedy. He celebrated its house passage Thursday.

“If people can’t be safe in bible study, then they cannot be safe anywhere,” Clyburn said at a press conference. “What we have here is a young man, he had no business having a gun and was able to get a gun because the wrong information was keyed in. I will always believe that he knew the law well enough to intentionally give the wrong information and by the time they found the right information, he had the gun.”

H.R. 1446 would give officials more time to conduct background checks, extending the background check review period from three days to ten days.

Not everyone thinks the bill will accomplish what it's set out to do, which is help close the gap.

Arlyn Pendergast is well-versed in the process. He sells firearms nearly every day at ATP Gun Shop and Range in Summerville. He said the bill won’t do much.

“It’s not going to do any good because first of all, the FBI has to have the information to be able to say yes or no,” Pendergast said. “It’s not going to do anything except irritate more people. It’s one of those worthless type things because the FBI computer can tell you in seconds yes or no.”

Representative Tom Rice (R-Myrtle Beach) agrees. The South Carolina congressman voted against the bill.

He said the problem isn’t the time limits, but lack of information to conduct them. He said the FBI uses three criminal databases, but legally, they can only use two, which prevents them from seeing someone’s full criminal record. Rice introduced H.R. 1518 that would give the FBI full access to search the National Data Exchange database.

“That system is more detailed, far more detailed than the other two and almost every law enforcement agency in the country contributes to that,” Rice told ABC News 4 on Friday. “With Dylann Roof, the information about his drug arrest that would have barred him from buying a gun was in the index system. If they would have looked at it, they would have barred his ability to buy the gun. The background check would have kicked out.”

Rep. Nancy Mace represents a large portion of the Lowcountry, including downtown Charleston where Emanuel AME Church is located. She also voted against Clyburn's bill. ABC News 4 reached out to Mace for an interview Friday. The congresswoman wasn’t available and has not provided a statement yet.

The House passed a similar bill in 2019 but didn’t make it through the senate. It’s unclear how far it will make it from here; however, the proposed legislation did garner more bipartisan support in the House this time around.

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