AUSTIN — A 23-year-old man was wanted in Harris County for allegedly threatening to stab his stepfather when he bought an AR-15 from an Austin gun store in July.

Less than a month later, police arrested Dalton Broesche at a popular park in the capital city with a cache of weapons, including the assault-style rifle, which was loaded.

Since then, state lawmakers have held up the case as a breakdown of the background check system for gun purchases now at the center of debate after two deadly mass shootings in El Paso and Odessa last month claimed the lives of 29 people.

But Broesche passed the background check, according to a review by Hearst Newspapers. A little-known federal rule change in 2017 now lets most people with outstanding arrest warrants buy guns, so long as they haven’t fled across state lines.

The shift has largely caught legislators — and even the man who sold Broesche the gun — by surprise. Some are now calling for a fix.

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“Anytime someone has a warrant for their arrest, then they shouldn’t have access to a firearm,” said Michael Cargill, who owns Central Texas Gun Works, where Broesche bought the gun. “That’s something that needs to be addressed.”

It’s an area where both sides of the gun debate may find agreement.

Mike Cox, director of legislative affairs for the Texas State Rifle Association, the state branch of the NRA, said Thursday that those with an arrest warrant for a violent act shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.

“If someone is a threat, has proven it with action and is under arrest, he should be put in timeout and his records need to be updated as soon as possible,” Cox said. “That should prevent them from buying a gun until that’s resolved.”

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Harris County officials in early July filed a warrant for Broesche’s arrest, alleging that in 2018 he had threatened to stab his stepfather at their home in Hockley, a community northwest of Houston. He was charged with aggravated assault of a family member, a felony.

By then, Broesche was in the Austin area. In June, he took a course at Central Texas Gun Works to get his concealed carry license, Cargill said.

Broesche didn’t raise any flags for Cargill. “We didn’t think anything of him, he wasn’t acting strange,” he said.

A few weeks later, Cargill said, Broesche returned to the store to buy a gun.

Definition of ‘fugitive’ changed

Under federal law, people who have been convicted of felonies and domestic violence can’t buy firearms. Neither can fugitives from justice.

For years, the FBI, which runs background checks for the state, considered a fugitive to be anyone with an arrest warrant. But in 2017, that changed. Now, only people with arrest warrants who have fled the state to avoid prosecution — or those who have been indicted — are ineligible to buy guns.

An FBI spokeswoman said the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 “does not authorize the denial of firearm transfers under the ‘fugitive from justice’ prohibition based solely upon the existence of an outstanding arrest warrant.” In order to meet the prohibition, officials using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System must determine whether the prospective buyer is subject to a current criminal prosecution or testimonial obligation and has fled the state to avoid it.

Because federal policy for so long had blocked people accused of serious crimes from buying guns, few states adopted their own restrictions, said Lindsay Nichols, federal policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Texas isn’t one of them.

“You can have a warrant out for a violent crime and can still go buy an AR-15,” said Ed Scruggs, board president of Texas Gun Sense, which advocates stricter gun control. “How much sense does that make? Zero.”

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It’s not clear how, or whether, state lawmakers will respond.

Leaders of the Texas Department of Public Safety raised the fugitive issue at an hours-long Senate hearing Thursday on gun safety, saying someone wanted in Texas for murder could potentially buy a gun here but not if they tried in another state.

“There’s nuances to that, but generally that’s the problem we face with the fugitive-from-justice disqualifier … that it doesn’t apply to in-state only actions,” said Skylor Hearn, deputy director of law enforcement services at DPS.

Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, said there should be a special session called to address the issue.

“Nobody knew about this,” Hinojosa said. “This is a big gaping hole in our background system.”

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, however, has resisted pleas to call a special session, saying he wants to find consensus rather than taking “hastily” called votes that split along party lines. He’s issued a series of executive orders, including one meant to shore up how quickly courts report criminal records to the background check system, and has called on the Legislature to consider other fixes.

‘Nothing about him that stuck out’

Broesche didn’t immediately pass a background check, Cargill said. But after three business days, a federally licensed dealer can sell the gun if the FBI hasn’t finished vetting the buyer.

The background check on Broesche wasn’t done within that time frame. DPS’ Hearn said the FBI was researching to see if the case was moving or whether there was an indictment. Cargill said he gave Broesche the weapon July 27.

“Unless there’s something that sticks out to us, we wouldn’t delay,” he said. “There was nothing about him that stuck out, so we didn’t delay him.”

In mid-August, police were called to the Austin park for reports of a man walking through the crowded site while armed with a rifle and a knife, police records show. Broesche was detained, and during a pat down, officers found that he was carrying a handgun and a metal baton, an arrest affidavit said.

Broesche told the officers he had thrown his rifle into brush off a trail, the affidavit said. He was charged with deadly conduct and unlawfully carrying a weapon with a license.

Austin police didn’t respond to requests for comment about the case. Neither did Broesche’s attorney.

This month, Cargill said he received a phone call from the FBI. Broesche had cleared the background check.

amorris@express-news.net