BELLEVUE, WA – Today’s arrest of Raymond Lee Fryberg, father of Marysville Pilchuck gunman Jaylen Fryberg, on charges of illegally purchasing the pistol used in that shooting demonstrates the fatal flaw of so-called “universal background check” legislation, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said.
“Apparently,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “a permanent protection order issued against Fryberg back in 2002 never made it into the National Instant Check System (NICS). Penalizing all law-abiding gun owners because a system is flawed does not prevent crime from happening, nor does it keep the wrong people from getting their hands on guns.”
The government alleges that not only did the elder Fryberg provide false information on the Federal Form 4473 when he bought the Beretta pistol his son used in the October shooting, he also allegedly bought four other firearms at various times. It is not known why information about the protection order did not appear in the NICS system, but Fryberg’s status as a disqualified person apparently never showed up during NICS checks. But he apparently knew the protection order was still in effect months before he bought the handgun, and so did the tribal court. Read more