Why isn't the NICS check instant?

[v4kerker]

Went to the not so LGS (90 miles away from my home) to pick up a long gun. Needlessly the NICS back ground check wasn't instant last Friday now it looks like a handgun waiting period and another road trip.

Why the wait for a long gun?

 

[Mr H]

Most often, it seems that if you are 'delayed' it is due to something like a common name, and they can't clear it up right away.

 

[MikeTF]

Yup, it happens to my brother. He's perfectly fine with the check every time. He just sometimes gets a 'delay' status. It seems someone with the same name does not have as clean of a record. He was given a form that he can fill out that will prevent this from happening in the future.

 

[v4kerker]

Mr. H my full name only brings up about 5 pages on a Google search and I just received a hand gun purchase first week of Feb. Plus I got my gun collector letter in the mail last week.

 

[v4kerker]

Yup, it happens to my brother. He's perfectly fine with the check every time. He just sometimes gets a 'delay' status. It seems someone with the same name does not have as clean of a record. He was given a form that he can fill out that will prevent this from happening in the future.

What form would that be?
I bought a long gun at the Frederick gun show last year with only a 10 minute wait.

 

[Mr H]

That's just one possible reason, and I have heard of others.

Never happened to me, so I'm just going on my own limited experience.

 

[JettaRed]

The background check IS instant (or relatively so). It doesn't mean instant APPROVAL. Regardless, the FBI must deny within three days or the FFL may legally release the firearm as long as he/she does not know or believe that you should be denied.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[JettaRed]

What form would that be?

The NICS Voluntary Appeal File.

 

[swinokur]

Yep-get a UPIN.

 

[JettaRed]

Went to the not so LGS (90 miles away from my home) to pick up a long gun. Needlessly the NICS back ground check wasn't instant last Friday now it looks like a handgun waiting period and another road trip.

Why the wait for a long gun?

There's not an LGS closer to you? It might be worth paying shipping to someone closer instead of driving 180 round trip and spending half a day traveling.

 

[MikeTF]

What form would that be?
I bought a long gun at the Frederick gun show last year with only a 10 minute wait.

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/nics/appeals/nics-appeals-process/appeals-process

 

[v4kerker]

There's not an LGS closer to you? It might be worth paying shipping to someone closer instead of driving 180 round trip and spending half a day traveling.

JettaRed I entered a gun raffle at the Frederick gun show last month and I won a long gun So that's why I made the trip.
I even have a TWIC card.

I'm guessing the checks are portional to the distance between the FFL's ZIP and Buys ZIP

 

[DC-W]

A system that is supposed to verify the identity and records of over 300 millions people is bound to hiccup from time to time.

 

[danb]

Mr. H my full name only brings up about 5 pages on a Google search and I just received a hand gun purchase first week of Feb. Plus I got my gun collector letter in the mail last week.

Criminal records wont necessarily come up on a Google search. If someone with a similar name is being investigated, that wont come up either.

If you got your LG I would not worry too much, unless it happens again.

 

[SigMatt]

Considering what the NICS system does in Information Technology terms, I can say it works very well as a system for the most part. If you lack any "possible prohibitors", as NICS defines a condition that may disqualify firearms ownership, the check clears the queue within minutes.

NICS is a large scale system. Its response time varies based on volume. The more traffic, the longer it takes since the system can only handle so many requests at once. And given that most of these requests require lookups into other databases over other networks, the fact the NICS system can complete this task in a minute or two under low volumes and within 15 minutes under high volumes is actually pretty good without being privy to its design and architecture. There is enough information out there to give one a good sense of how it works.

Only in "delay" responses does it slow down significantly because many of the databases required to clear the potential prohibitor have to checked manually. Even then, they can clear it within 30-60 minutes.

Also bear in mind that NICS has priority queuing. What this means is gun show traffic gets priority for NICS approvals over over-the-counter sales. The reason for this is a gun show is not a storefront and it will move within a day or two. The purchaser and the FFL are not local to each other so a significantly delayed approval can cause problems on both sides. Someone at their local gunshop, in theory, can come back later. At 3:30pm on a Sunday afternoon at a gun show, you don't have much time to come back. So if there is a big gun show going on somewhere in the country, you may see delays in processing if you aren't attending it.

I'm not in the habit of handing out praise to a government system but NICS is one of the better implementations of government automation out there. One that actually works and works within the Service Level Agreements (SLA), as we call them in the IT world, for how quickly a system is supposed to respond and with what degree of responsiveness under certain loads.

That being said, it is rare for a check to run more than a few hours. My longest ever was a day. Most were 30 minutes to a couple of hours at worst and that was because I always got delayed.

Until yesterday, that is. Yesterday I experienced heaven with NICS. The check cleared in what looked like about 2 minutes. I was in awe. It is amazing what a difference checking that "US citizen" box along with an uncommon name did for response times!

Give NICS some credit. Personally, I find the idea of the point-of-sale background check weird but ask yourself this: "Would you trade it for a permanent gun license instead like the Canadian model?". In Canada, they do the background check on license issue and here in some states with general license requirements for purchase/possession. But in Canada, once you have the license, there is no further background check. A gun show in Canada is present the license, hand over the money and walk out the door.

As much as NICS may seem like an inconvenience, it was designed to prevent the introduction of gun owner licensing and prevent felons from buying guns on more than a signature and perjury. So it gets some credit where credit is due.

Matt

 

[AJRB]

Mine are always instant, never had a delay. I must have an uncommon name

 

[adit]

Did you list your social?

 

[Mooseman]

I have never had a problem or delay. It has always been instant for me.

 

[dontpanic]

NICS was down for everybody at the York show today. A gun show with no gun sales

 

[PapiBarcelona]

NICS or the PICS?

The Pennsylvania Instant Check is SLOW for PA residents buying handguns when there are a lot of gunshows happening on the same day.

I remember going to a PA show and the vendor telling the buyer to come back in 45 minutes as that's how long it took his last phone call to end.