The New York Times breathlessly reports today that Dylan Roof could have been stopped from murdering nine people in Charleston were it not for a flaw in the background check. “A loophole in the check system allowed [Roof] to buy the .45-caliber handgun despite his having previously admitted to drug possession,” the Times reports the FBI to have admitted. (The Times story has since been corrected without notation.) The FBI operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, though, listening to Democrats, we know it may be shocking to learn that a nearly universal background check system already exists. What may be even more shocking to the Times is that it wasn’t a “loophole.” It was human error, plain and simple. Someone at the FBI failed to update the system.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, laments, “The disclosure amounts to a heartbreaking admission by the FBI director that the attack on members of a Bible study group at Emanuel AME might have been averted.” Perhaps, but perhaps not. Roof was a druggie who killed nine people (allegedly!). Does anyone think there aren’t other ways of obtaining firearms than passing a background check? Clearly, the lesson here is twofold: First, enforce the law. Second, there are still times the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.