According to an FBI report, there were more than 1 million opportunities to purchase a gun from licensed dealers without having to complete a background check.
According to data compiled and analyzed by NBC News, the background checks for 1,002,274 people (or 4.2%) took more than three days in 2020-2021. This is a greater percentage than any time since at least 2014. Federal law permits dealers to sell weapons after the background check has been completed. This could allow people with mental illnesses or criminal histories who are unable to legally own guns to purchase them.
According to the FBI report, the FBI completed approximately one-fourth the delayed background checks and found that 11,564 people could buy guns in 2020 or 2021. This was before the FBI check revealed that they shouldn’t have been allowed to. The weapons were then returned to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
This number is only a fraction of all the background checks that were delayed. The FBI did not complete 734 604 background checks between January 2020 and November 2021 as they took more than 88 days. After that, the bureau must cease its research and delete any unfinished checks.
Some dealers won’t sell weapons unless they have completed a check. Many states also have stricter requirements.
It’s difficult to determine how many people bought guns after a background check was not completed.
Rob Wilcox is the federal legal director for Everytown for Gun Safety. He stated that every gun sold without a background check poses a risk. These staggering numbers are a sign that there is a serious problem.
Congress extended the deadline for background checks to gun buyers younger than 21 last month after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde. This gives the FBI more time for blocking a sale to anyone who shouldn’t own a gun. The new law requires that gun buyers younger than 21 have a thorough background check. This will give officials more time, but also more work.
The strict deadline of three days for gun buyers aged 21 or older is not affected by the new law.
This deadline, also known as the “Charleston loophole” by gun control advocates, is how a white supremacist purchased the gun that he used in the murders of nine Black worshippers at a Charleston church, South Carolina in 2015. He had previously admitted drug possession, making it illegal to purchase or own a firearm. His background check had not been completed within three days so he was allowed buy a gun on the fourth.
The Rev. Sharon Risher, 70, lost her mother Ethel Lee Lance in the Charleston attack. She supports the federal law seven years later but is disappointed that it doesn’t do more to combat gun violence, including closing the Charleston loophole.
“I will take the crumb. She said, “It’s something.” “But the crumb they offer does not reduce the number of laws we need.”
The National Rifle Association opposed the extension of the timeline for individuals under 21. It expressed concern that the new law would be interpreted in such a way as to prevent lawful exercise by the Second Amendment right. The NRA stated that the three-business day window was necessary to ensure the government doesn’t arbitrarily deny Second Amendment rights to law-abiding individuals through bureaucratic delays. The NRA didn’t respond to a request for comment.
An undercount of FBI data on background checks exists. This only covers checks that were processed by the FBI; background checks are run in 19 states. The report does not include December 2021 because it was completed by the FBI before these numbers were available.
In a statement, the FBI stated that it was “unable to speculate on factors that may cause an increase in or decrease in unresolved transaction.”
The FBI stated that it has had to contact other agencies in order to find information that was not available in its databases. These databases rely on records provided by tribal, state, and local courts as well as law enforcement agencies. According to the bureau, this can cause delays.
The FBI stated in a statement that “sometimes the information isn’t available or the agency might not respond.” This has an impact on the number of unresolved transactions.”
From 2005 to 2009, Tom Bush was the assistant director for the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division. This division operates the gun background checks system. He acknowledged that the FBI’s information can be incomplete.
Bush, who is now an FBI contractor, stated that he was putting the numbers on “poor records”. We don’t have all the mental health records. We don’t receive all the domestic violence records, stay away orders and other information.
Bush stated that many of the FBI databases’ arrests do not have a final disposition. Bush explained that while there is a record of someone being arrested for a crime that can bar them from owning guns, there is no record of what happened afterwards — a conviction or plea deal, or dropping charges.
The FBI cannot access disposition records without local law enforcement or courts. All this while the clock ticks three business days. This can be particularly difficult for older records that might not be digitally digitized.
Federal grants are available to assist tribal, state, and local agencies in importing more records into the system. Bush stated that most of the cost is borne by state and local governments.
Bush stated, “If it isn’t funded, let’s face the facts, it won’t get done.”
A report by the FBI on the background check of Charleston’s church shooter also found inaccuracies. It also pointed out the FBI’s standard operating procedure, which it claimed limited background check examiners’ research capabilities and prioritized background checks that could resolve in under three business days. It also stated that the bureau’s job was “complicated” by statutory requirements, including an 88-day purge window as well as a policy that requires FBI records of background checks approved to be purge after 24 hours.
According to the 2015 report, these policies require the bureau to “rework” complex background checks every time a buyer buys a weapon. The 2015 report also stated that the policies make it harder to investigate gun buyers who don’t pass background checks. This is a federal crime.
According to the report, the FBI should “assess whether there is any legislative relief.”
Mark Collins, federal policy manager and electoral manager at Brady’s gun control advocacy group, says these problems are inevitable because of the tight deadlines in federal law and regulations.
“This is the natural course we could expect from how the NICS was set up due to the way that the law is written,” he stated, using the official name for the FBI’s gun background checking system.
Congress passed a law to increase background check records, particularly those provided by federal agencies, after 27 people were killed in a shooting at a Texas church. It didn’t address the deadlines to process background checks.
There are signs that the background check system is slowing down, which can lead to more delays. From almost 2.8 percent in 2014, to more than 4 percent in 2020-2021, the percentage of FBI background checks that take over three days has risen from almost 2.8 percent. Data shows that both the number of and the percentage of federal background checks that the FBI does not complete each year have increased since 2014.
