You may recall back in November 2017 when a lunatic named Devin Kelley shot up a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, killing 26 people. It was a horrifying event but it never even went to trial because Kelley took his own life after trying to flee. (Or at least that’s one version of the story.) There has been a legal case making its way through the courts ever since then. Family members and victims sued the government after a judge ruled the government to be partially responsible for the tragedy. This week, a tentative settlement was announced by the Justice Department. If it is approved, the plaintiffs could receive more than 144 million dollars. (NBC News)

The victims of the 2017 mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in which 26 were killed, have reached a “tentative agreement” with the Justice Department to settle a case against the federal government for $144.5 million.

If the settlement is finalized, it will likely end a yearslong legal battle over a federal judge’s ruling that the U.S. government bears some responsibility for the attack because it failed to submit the shooter’s criminal history into a database that would have prevented him from purchasing firearms.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, the Justice Department said that it had reached “an agreement in principle” that “would resolve the pending appeals.”

There never seemed to be any doubt as to the fact that Devin Kelley was a madman. (And he had a long history of being a real scumbag.) Nor was there any serious doubt about the fact that he committed the shooting. But this lawsuit really wasn’t about the actions of the shooter.

When Kelley’s background was checked, it was learned that he had been in trouble with the law on several occasions, including domestic violence charges. That’s when someone thought to raise the question of how he got his hands on a rifle with that sort of record. As it turns out, Kelley passed his background check with no problems so he legally purchased the firearm, at least technically.

But the Air Force had Kelley’s records, including the domestic violence charge. There is a special form they are supposed to use to enter that information into the federal database used for background checks. They failed to submit the form so the records didn’t show up when he applied.

That puts the government on the hook for this and now the Justice Department seems to agree. There were questions raised at the time as to whether the information would have been processed if it was recorded incorrectly, which it may have been. And even if he was on the list of people banned from purchasing firearms, it’s possible that he might have obtained one through illegal means.

But none of that changes the fact that the Air Force did mess up and a lot of people died. There’s no reason to question the judgment or the rights of the families and survivors to some sort of compensation. Hopefully, this agreement will put the matter to rest once and for all.