National Instant Criminal Background Check System
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is a point-of-sale system for determining eligibility to purchase a firearm in the United States of America, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Federal Firearms Licence (FFL) holders are required by law to use the NICS to determine if it is legal to sell a firearm to a prospective purchaser. The NICS determines if the buyer is prohibited from buying a firearm under the Gun Control Act of 1968. It is linked to the National Crime Information Center and the Interstate Identification Index.
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How it "works"
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is applicable to sales from federally licenced dealers. Sales of firearms by private sellers are allowed to proceed without a background check unless required by state law. These regulations remain in place at gun shows, where no special leniency is granted to licensed sellers, and no additional requirements are placed upon private sellers.
NICS is accessed by an FFL, on the firearm buyer's behalf, by phone or using a computer. When contacted by phone the communication is either with an FBI/NICS Examiner who directly receives the information submitted by the FFL or by proxy through a Call Center representative who forwards the information electronically to the NICS. Whether an Examiner or a Call Center representative is contacted depends on the state in which the sale is conducted. When using a computer an FFL representative can submit the buyer's information using the E-Check system which is a web interface to the NICS[1]. An FFL can be an individual or an organization such as Wal-Mart. An organization registered as an FFL minimizes the overhead involved in managing identification for multiple individuals who are employed by the organization.
By law an FFL must receive a response from the NICS within 3 days or the firearm sale can proceed. If after 3 days the sale is completed and later it is determined the buyer should not have received the firearm then the firearm must be retrieved[2]. If a buyer is denied the firearm then the buyer can appeal the decision.
Criticisms
Curiously enough, during the Clinton administration, the NICS routinely suffered from technical difficulties causing the system to be offline for approximately 1 hour for every 17 hours of operation. Almost immediately following the inauguration of President George W. Bush in 2001, the system mysteriously fixed itself and has had almost no difficulties since. Coincidence?
See also
Notes
- ↑ If used by computer, the NICS requires the Internet Explorer browser, thus requiring gun stores to purchase a Windows software licence.
- ↑ It should be noted that while the "firearm must be retrieved" in the event of sale to an intelligible individual, virtually nothing is said about how this is to be accomplished by, for example, your typical Wal-Mart clerk...
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