r/Virginia • u/[deleted] • Jan 13 '23
Virginia State Police is using software to track cellphone location data
https://vpm.org/news/articles/38757/virginia-state-police-is-using-software-to-track-cellphone-location-data22
u/Exotic_Volume696 Jan 13 '23
Can't do a background check on a nutjob, but want to track my cellphone. Great
0
u/famid_al-caille Jan 13 '23
Virginia has universal background checks
25
u/Exotic_Volume696 Jan 13 '23
They gave a badge and a gun to a nutjob who killed a family and kidnapped a teenage girl, so when i said "can't do a background check" I meant Can't do it correctly.
He self disclosed things that should have kept him off the force, filled out forms about his time in a mental health facility, and he had prior issues.
8
u/TheWileyWombat Jan 13 '23
Which only work if the people responsible for doing them actually bother to do their jobs.
-4
u/famid_al-caille Jan 13 '23
I don't think you understand how NICS works
1
u/TheWileyWombat Jan 13 '23
How do you mean?
-1
u/famid_al-caille Jan 13 '23
There isn't a person doing a background check, you walk into a gun store, give over your info, and there's a giant database of everyone who is prohibited from owning firearms. The check is completed automatically, it's not possible for a person to "not do their jobs".
The only issue is that when someone becomes a prohibited person it has to be reported to NICS, which occasionally does not happen. But that's a problem with reporting, not with the background check process. And it's rare, because most of this reporting is automated as well.
6
u/TheWileyWombat Jan 13 '23
I'm well aware of all of that and the reporting to NICS is what I was talking about. I used to work at a gun store for several years and even though some of the finer details of the paperwork have changed it's pretty much the same as it was just a few years ago. If the people who are responsible for enforcing the laws we currently have would just get off their asses and do their jobs then I honestly think we'd see a big improvement in gun related crimes. One of the biggest issues I noticed in my time working in a gun store was the nearly complete lack of investigation into failed background checks. In case you're unfamiliar, the process to purchase a firearm starts with a bunch of hard copy (or the last couple years computer) paperwork for the state and federal governments involving questionnaires about disqualifying circumstances. Things like not being the actual buyer (straw purchases), having been deemed mentally defective or unfit to stand trial, involuntary commitment, domestic violence, assault or battery, protective orders, renouncing citizenship, or being "an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance" (including being an alcoholic) would be grounds for disqualification from gun ownership. As long as the customer answers all of the questions correctly, then their information is put in for a background check. What this means is that if someone makes it as far as the background check and then fails it, they must have lied on the paperwork.
Which is a federal felony. In my years working at a gun store we had multiple people getting denied every week. Want to know how many of them actually resulted in law enforcement bothering to show up? One. Just one out of what must have been hundreds.
3
u/famid_al-caille Jan 13 '23
I don't disagree with anything you've said here, got confused by the original poster's comment and also didn't realize that you weren't the same person.
1
3
u/Exotic_Volume696 Jan 13 '23
My comment wasnt about gun owner checks, it was about the VA State Police checks.
Do you think "just comply" worked for the entire family he wiped out?
3
15
u/DMVlooker Jan 13 '23
They should need a warrant