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NICS: the Ins, the Outs, and On the Numbers

Written by Orchid

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August 09, 2013

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(Download or read below) How well do you think you know the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)?  Turns out, there’s a lot to know about our federal background check system, including which states are full participants, which records are consulted, the volume of checks conducted, and top reasons for denials. NICS was mandated in 1993 by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, and was launched by the FBI on November 30, 1998.  The Brady Act requires FFLs to contact NICS before transferring a firearm to learn whether the proposed transferee might be prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under federal or state laws.  NICS provides background checks to FFLs in 30 states, five US territories, and the District of Columbia.  Each state is empowered to decide whether FFLs in its jurisdiction contact the FBI NICS or a state point of contact (“POC”).  In the other 20 states, the background check is performed by a local or state law enforcement agency.  Of these, 13 states have designated agencies to act on behalf of the NICS.  Seven states share responsibility with NICS by acting as a partial POC, splitting responsibilities between the states for handgun checks and/or handgun permits, while NICS processes long gun purchases. States (13) which are full POC:  CA, CO, CT, FL, HI, IL, NJ, NV, OR, PA, TN, UT, VA. States (7) which are partial POC:  IA, MD, NC, NE, NH, WA, WI. Upon completion of the ATF Form 4473, the FFL either calls the 800 NICS number or e-files via Internet.  As of December 31, 2012, the total number of FFLs enrolled for NICS E-Check was 4,270. Once an NICS request is received, NICS then identifies whether the proposed firearms transfer would violate 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) or (n).  Far and away the leading reason for an NICS denial is that the applicant was convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year.  This one criteria accounted for 577,814 out of a total of 987,578 denials from inception through December 31, 2012. If there are no federal or state prohibiting criteria, the FBI NICS Examiner provides an NICS Transaction Number (NTN) that must be recorded on ATF Form 4473, line 21b.  If the initial NICS response is “delayed,” the FBI has three business days to clarify information that came back as a match with information from the National Crime Information Center, the Interstate Identification Index, and/or the NICS Index. As the FBI describes, out of 100 potential gun buyers, 70 receive a “proceed,” while the other 30 are transferred to the FBI NICS Section for review.  Of those 30 that are transferred, 22 receive an immediate determination, whether proceed or denied.  Of the remaining 8, those are delayed for additional review under the three business day rule. According to the FBI, from inception to December 31, 2012, a total of 160,474,702 NICS transactions were processed.  Broken down, 75,880,877 were processed by the FBI NICS Section and 84,593,825 were processed by states.  Records were set in November and December 2012 with a spike in volume.  The highest week of NICS background checks occurred December 23-29, 2012 at 953,613 firearm background checks.  In a single day, December 21, 2012, there were a record number of 177,170 background checks processed.  In 2012, the NICS Index expanded by more than 1 million records of state-prohibiting events to a total of 8,323,931 records.  And yet, as of May 1, 2012, the Department of Justice showed that 30 states had not made any noncriminal records available.  The “NICS Index” as of April 16, 2012 includes “a system of records developed by the FBI exclusively for the NICS that collects and maintains records voluntarily submitted by local, state, tribal, and federal agencies of persons who are federally prohibited.”  There are three main components of NICS background checks are the Interstate Identification Index (criminal records), the National Crime Information Center (civil protection orders and arrest warrants), and the NICS Index (federal and state agency data). The two leading categories of active records in the NICS Index are more than 5 million records of illegal/unlawful aliens and nearly 2 million records of those adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution.  NICS does not maintain a database of medical records, diagnoses, or treatment plans.  When there is an adjudication of an involuntary commitment to a mental institution or an adjudication of being a mental defective, the NICS Index entry contains only a name, other biographic identifiers, codes for the submitting entry, and the prohibited entry. Since 1995, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has administered NCHIP to provide more than $550 million in grants for states to create or improve computer record systems of criminal history.  Examples of funding include identification of disqualifying mental health dispositions in Florida to implementing live scan devices in courts to improve record matching in Oregon.  Additional funding is available through NICS Improvement Amendments Act funding.

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