SUTHERLAND SPRINGS

The U.S. Air Force must pay more than $230 million in damages to survivors and victims’ families of the 2017 Sutherland Spring church massacre for failing to flag a conviction that might have kept the gunman from legally buying the weapon used in the shooting.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Air Force is mostly responsible for a former serviceman killing more than two dozen people at a Texas church in 2017 because it failed to submit his criminal history into a database, which should have prevented him from purchasing firearms.

The Texas Supreme Court says survivors and relatives of those killed in a 2017 mass killing at a church can’t sue a sporting goods chain for selling the gunman the rifle used in the attack.