How did Minn. murderer get permit to buy 15 guns?

(CBS News) WATERTOWN TOWNSHIP, Minn. -- Sheriff Jim Olson was going through daily police reports last month when he came across a familiar name: Chris Oberender. Olson had been a young detective when he met with Oberender in 1995.

Sheriff Jim Olson

/ CBS News

At the time, "Chris was 14 years old and murdered his mother," Olson says. He killed his mother with a gun.

When he was 21, Oberender was released from a mental hospital. Under Minnesota law, he was banned from owning a gun. That's what troubled Olson about the police report he was reading.

"And I saw the pictures that he had of guns on his Facebook page," Olson says. "He can't have guns. Chris Oberender should not have guns."

Asked how a man like Oberender, who was convicted of murdering his mother with a gun, obtains a firearm, Olson responds, "I wish I had a good answer for that. I don't."

Police found 15 guns at Oberender's home.

/ CBS News

Oberender passed a background check in 2011 and obtained a Minnesota gun permit. Police found 15 guns in all at Oberender's house. They also discovered a letter Oberender recently wrote to his dead mother.

The letter read, in part, "I am so homicide. What is wrong with me? I think about killing all the time."

Olson says reading those words was "chilling."

He says Oberender passed a background check because sloppy file keeping by the courts left critical criminal information out of his legal record. There were no fingerprints or record from the court.

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What was in the record was Oberender's forced commitment to the mental hospital.

Lucinda Jesson

/ CBS News

"In this case, we were lucky," says Lucinda Jesson, the state's top mental health official. "No one was hurt through the good actions of local law enforcement."

Jesson told CBS News law enforcement would have found the mental hospital record if they'd checked.

"We have to be asked to run the match," she says. "That does not always happen. ... It's not automatic."

"We were not aware he was not in the system until New Year's Eve," Olson says. "I would call it providence."

Chris Oberender

Today, Oberender is in jail awaiting trial for illegal possession of firearms. State officials say they have incomplete records for 168,000 people from Minnesota who want to buy guns, and under the law, if the state cannot find complete records, it must issue a permit within seven days.

[tberchenbriter]

Any time they have premade 3d graphics of an event, you know its fake.

[erasmus111]

What is up with this stupid website?!!!

This particular article, and a few others that still have the "time". The "replies" are missing, or some are, and when you click on "See all 137 comments", they all disappear!

You will get comments disappearing and reappearing on all the stories, but with these ones with the "time", it' just seams to be the "replies".

I just find it unbelievable that CBS can't find someone who knows what they are doing. There is always something wrong.

[ArleneVella]

fix your computer and stop whining

[erasmus111]

ArleneVella, Nobodyhasthisname

Well, if you two haven't noticed it, then you are a couple of dumb ass es. In lala land, are ya? Not very observant? I can see that maybe you wouldn't notice it if you didn't return to a story.

It isn't my computer and it isn't that they are being DELETED. They are obviously not being deleted if they are REAPPEARING! It has been like this ever since they changed the webpage, only it's worse on this particular story.

[TimeToEvolve]

If we want to get down to the CAUSE of our violence problem you have to go back to Ronald Reagan. He was the champion for what has become a very inequitable situation in America.

America has one of the largest gaps between rich and poor and we can blame Reagnaomics. Get rid of free education, don't consider mental illness a real ailment and get rid of the social safety net and slash the wealth and good jobs for the middle class.

[tonyspdx]

So, its the Governments fault. So a paper pusher let this criminal slip through the cracks. If the law was enforced this would not of happened.

[TimeToEvolve]

Let's get rid of the Reagan tax cuts we could start to undo these tragic consequences of Reaganomics.

[Rafterman11]

Gun laws don't help because they aren't taken seriously by the gun nuts. When you have sheriffs - elected officials - saying they won't enforce laws they don't agree with, what do you expect? Not to mention all the gun sellers who skirt around, if not completely ignore, the law as well. Throw in loopholes all over the place, like no checks at gun shows, and its clear why there is so much gun violence by people who shouldn't have guns. The gun nuts screech about how their 2nd amendment rights are at stake. But in reality, its just the opposite, as our gun laws are a joke.

[judymar14]

The NRA has nothing to do with this lunatic getting a gun card. The fault lays with our government and it's laws. This is a prime example why a police record should not be expunged when a criminal turns 18 convicted of any crime to do with violence.

Common sense would have to be used - (example, a child shoplifting - which is a misdemeanor - should not have that hanging over his/her head for the rest of theirlife.

Beside that, he should still be in prison.

What will he be sentenced to for having illegal firearms? Five years?

[1history]

He probably passed the same background check as the drug dealers in Mexico that were also allowed to purchase guns by the Justice Dept. Way too convenient.

[rjack61]

So, this guy was a convicted felon (killed his mother), treated for mental illness, served in the military (I thought felons were automatically disqualified to served in the armed forces) and was able to obtain weapons legally? If I'm wrong, someone please set me straight. I honestly hope I am wrong on any level with my comments.

[cpmp08]

you are wrong in some of your comments, the article does NOT say he served in the military.

The systems is broken that is why he could buy the weapons, and he did NOT buy them legally, because of his conviction he was banned from buying guns.

[FoolKiller]

And people talk about a GUNSHOW loophole.
Let's enforce the current laws and see what happens.
THEN if more laws are still needed, we can go from there.
It's only common sense...

[KPeters_from_UK]

How about the first step is to fund the freakin AFT???? It was the GOP with the NRA lobby which drastically cut the AFT. In fact, there is no head for the AFT. They don't have the resources nor staff.

[Rocket_USA]

KP, you mean the same ATF that ran guns to Mexico and just recently had an ATF machinegun, pistol and $35,000 worth of inventory for their fake store stolen in Milwaulke? That ATF that owes the landlord of their front shop back rent, damages and unpaid utilites to the tune of $15,000? In an operation that netted only low level dealers? That ATF?

[jntlw]

This is my point, the background checks are not that helpful. It was not enough in this case. We need to stop all and I mean all assault weapons from being sold or resold to the public no matter what. Background checks are often worthless red tape. Stop the sales of assault weapons for the public. Only official regulated militia (police, sheriff, National Guard, or US Armed forces) should be allowed access to such weapons.

[Rafterman11]

Background checks aren't helpful because they aren't taken seriously. And why should they be, when law enforcement, like those sheriffs, can randomly decide what laws they are going to enforce.

When the gun nuts and the anti-government paranoids take background checks and gun law enforcement seriously, then we might make some progress.