Investigators work at the scene of a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017.

AUSTIN, Texas — A family that lost nine members in the Sutherland Springs church massacre last fall has filed a lawsuit against the federal government, citing negligence.

Joe and Claryce Holcombe claim that the Air Force failed to report the gunman’s past convictions for domestic violence to a national crime database, which allowed him to purchase the weapons used to kill their family members. The Holcombes lost their son, grandson, 17-month-old great-granddaughter and six others in the November shooting.

“We just want the Air Force to get their act together,” Joe Holcombe told The Dallas Morning News when he filed his first claim just weeks after the shooting. “They can’t correct this mistake. It’s already been made. But they can fix it so it doesn’t happen in the future.”

The Holcombes are one of several families who filed formal complaints against the federal government after the shooting. The government had six months to respond and offer a settlement. It did not, so the Holcombes have the right to sue under the Federal Tort Claims Act. The act allows citizens to seek damages in limited cases if they can prove direct negligence on the part of the government.

Other families are also planning to file suit once the six-month deadline for their claims passes.

On Nov. 5, Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs during Sunday services. He killed 26, including a pregnant woman. His oldest victim was 77 years old, and his youngest was 17-month-old Noah Grace Holcombe.

Kelley, an Air Force veteran, had a history of violence and mental illness. He received a bad-conduct discharge in 2014 after he was convicted of beating his first wife and assaulting his stepson, and had escaped two years earlier from a mental facility where he was admitted after threatening to kill his superior officers.

Rob Ammons, the Holcombes’ attorney, said these incidents should have landed Kelley on the FBI’s criminal database and kept him from legally owning guns. Instead, the Air Force admitted it failed to report his crimes, allowing Kelley to pass two background checks before he purchased the Ruger AR-556 he used in the shooting.

“The acts Kelley pleaded guilty to — breaking his baby stepson’s skull and hitting and kicking his then-wife — were punishable by imprisonment of more than a year,” Ammons said in a statement. “That qualifies them as felonies, which must be entered into the database.”

In their lawsuit, the Holcombes name the Department of Defense, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and John F. Bash, a federal civil process clerk, as defendants. They are asking for $25 million in damages.

The suit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The government has 27 days to respond.

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