Bipartisan Gun Control Bill Relies on Fault-Ridden Federal Background Check System
To push up gun sales, the gun lobby inserted a provision that allows gun dealers to give purchasers their weapons if an investigation is not completed within three business days.
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The bipartisan gun control bill being hashed out in the Senate depends heavily on the FBI’s National Instant Background Check System (NICS), an administrative marvel that processed 40 million firearms transactions in 2021, 88 percent of them within a few minutes. Critics say the system designed to operate at a fraction of its current capacity with serious built-in limitations inserted by the gun lobby, reports the New York Times. To push up gun sales, the gun lobby inserted a provision that allows gun dealers to give purchasers their weapons if an investigation is not completed within three business days.
The federal government has no authority to order states to provide any records — or dictate a timetable for data to be delivered. This results in persistent gaps in the system that have been associated with several high-profile mass killings and many other less-publicized crimes. Other flaws include: records on a buyer’s domestic violence, juvenile justice and mental health history are among the hardest to track, collect or even define. And while the current legislation would open up access to juvenile crime and mental health records for purchasers ages 18 to 21, it could take years to establish protocols for states to turn over their data.
