by David Safier

A press release from Mayors Against Illegal Guns states Loughner's purchase of his first gun, less than a year after he was rejected from enlisting in the Army because of illegal gun use, should have been blocked based on federal regulations, and the purchase of the Glock used at the shooting "violated the law’s clear intent."

Here is the beginning of the press release. You can the whole thing after the jump.

ARIZONA SHOOTER’S GUN PURCHASES SHOULD HAVE BEEN BLOCKED:  THE FIRST WAS ILLEGAL, THE SECOND VIOLATED THE LAW’S INTENT

How federal regulations, and the failure of government agencies to share information, undermine gun laws and allow dangerous individuals to buy firearms

Firearms Policy Experts Available for Interview

A review of federal law and regulations suggests that Arizona shooter Jared Loughner should have been blocked from buying the shotgun he obtained less than a year after his rejection from enlistment in the Army, and that his subsequent purchase of the Glock pistol he used to unleash a violent rampage in Tucson, Arizona violated the law’s clear intent.

Jared Loughner had a history of drug abuse that led military recruiters to reject him in December 2008.  In 2007, he was arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia, and marijuana was found in his car.  News reports indicate he also used mushrooms and Salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb.  In 2008, when he applied for enlistment in the U.S. Army, he said “yes” in response to question 17i on Department of Defense Form 2807-1, “Have you ever used illegal drugs or abused prescription drugs.”  According to U.S. Army sources, he was eventually rejected from enlistment after admitting to recruiters that “he smoked marijuana to such an extent” that they decided they were “not going to accept a habitual drug abuser into the Army.”  According to other military officials, he also failed a drug test.

Any of these facts should have prohibited Loughner from buying a gun for at least one year.  But less than a year later after the military turned him away, he was able to buy a shotgun after passing a background check conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS).  A year after that, in November of 2010, he bought another gun—a Glock that he used to kill 6 people and injure 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ).