False Positives on Background Checks on NICS

There’s an accidental and unholy partnership between the federal government and retail stores that sell firearms that is screwing law abiding citizens. When you buy a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer, that dealer has to run NICS background check on you. The results of that check can be 1) approved, 2) denied or 3) delayed. Unfortunately, a lot of folks end up “delayed.” This can happen for a bunch of reasons that usually are no fault of the purchaser.

Unresolved Delays

Now when they put this system in place, they knew it wasn’t perfect and they knew people would end up “delayed” for various reasons. When that happens, the feds are supposed to contact the district court of the jurisdiction with the information and check out the issue.  But what if they don’t? (And they usually don’t.) After 72 hours, the store may treat an unresolved “delay” as an approval and allow the sale. In other words, if the feds do nothing at all or fail to resolve the issue, no problem, the law abiding citizen gets his or her gun. Right?

Problems for Purchasers

Now here’s the problem. Like the rest of America, firearm’s dealers are scared. Scared of being used as an example, scared of politicians looking for votes and maybe scared of the Russians. Nowadays, doing nothing that could lead to trouble is the American way. So most retail stores, including sporting goods stores, simply refuse to sell a firearm to someone who is subject to a “delayed” status. I’ll call out Alexandria’s Fleet Farm on this one right now. The end result is this: The feds never resolve the “delayed status,” the store won’t sell the gun, even though the law allows them to after 72 hours and the prospective buyer simply cannot purchase a firearm, even if they’ve never had so much as a speeding ticket.

Getting Approved

Is there a way to resolve this? Usually. But it doesn’t involve filling out little forms and sending them to the FBI and waiting 6 months for nothing to happen. After all, if the system worked, this wouldn’t happen in the first place. Through a network of contacts I’ve developed over the years and knowing who to call, I’ve had pretty good luck in getting people from “delayed” to “approved.” This one isn’t about great lawyering, it’s about understanding how to navigate a bloated system that is screwing over citizens and doesn’t know how to fix itself. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still charge you lawyerly rates to help you with this, but I might feel a little bad about it. (Not really.)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]