A Bullet in a GOP Office, a Psych Patient, and a Gun Loophole

The Department of Justice on Friday issued a press release touting the success of the government’s “enhanced background checks,” highlighting two instances of gun buyers turned down for having been committed to psychiatric hospitals.

But even the strengthened checks have wiggle room. Court records obtained by The Daily Beast show just that just a few months ago, an accused domestic abuser committed to a psychiatric hospital bought a handgun three days after being released over doctors’ wishes—and a bullet from that gun was subsequently fired at an office rented by the GOP.

Andrew Patrick Sprecher had for the past year been expressing violent homicidal and suicidal urges, at one point scrawling across a table in blood, “I want it to stop,” according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) search warrant affidavit seeking access to the 44-year-old’s cell phone.

Read more at The Daily Beast.