FBI: 9,063 Allowed to Buy Guns in 2015 Who Shouldn't Have Been
COLUMBIA — The number of times the FBI allowed sales of guns with incomplete background checks jumped by thousands last year even as the process received increased scrutiny and calls for reform following the mistaken sale of a gun to a South Carolina man accused of shooting nine people in a black Charleston church.
In 2015, 271,359 background checks of gun buyers were incomplete after the federal government’s three-day limit, according to data provided by the FBI to The Greenville News. Of those, 9,063 were later denied. That means 9,063 people the FBI later determined should not be allowed to own a gun were allowed to buy guns because the agency could not complete a background check in time.
The FBI does not know how many background checks actually result in gun sales so even though more than 9,000 checks came after the three-day waiting period, it cannot say how many of those involved people who walked out of a store with a firearm.
But a good indication of those who get them who shouldn’t are the FBI's retrieval requests, which it sends to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to pick up guns if it believes a firearm was sold and the buyer should not own one. In 2015, according to the agency, it sent 2,892 such requests, up from 2,511 such requests in 2014.
There is no indication in any of the FBI data what happened after it sent such requests.
Last year The News reported that the FBI gave the green light to 6,000 gun purchasers in 2014 who it later determined should not own a gun.
Requests overall for firearm background checks increased by 10 percent last year, according to the agency.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of Columbia, assistant leader of Democrats in the House, has proposed the Background Check Completion Act, which would prevent a gun from being transferred by a licensed dealer until the background check is finished.
“The latest numbers show the problem is not going away, but getting worse,” he told The News. “Congress must pass my bill, the Background Check Completion Act, to close the Charleston Loophole and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of people the law already says should not own them. The policy should be very simple: no check, no sale.”
Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015, was allowed to purchase his .45-caliber handgun at a Columbia store because federal authorities could not locate the arrest records within the three-day period that showed a drug charge the FBI says would have disqualified him from purchasing a gun.
Licensed firearm dealers can proceed with a sale if no determination is made by the FBI during the three-day waiting period, though some, such as Wal-Mart, wait until a check is complete before transferring the weapon.
For 2015, the FBI reported a total of 23.1 million background checks through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System, up from a total of 20.9 the year before. The numbers through July are on pace to surpass those of 2015, with 16 million checks thus far, according to the agency. However, generally more than half of those are processed by states who prefer to do their own background checks or at least some of them. In 2014, the NICS staff processed 8.2 million checks and denied slightly more than 90,000.
There were 326,997 checks initiated as the result of requests through South Carolina firearms dealers in 2015, up from 289,764 in 2014, according to the agency.
Since 1998, the nation has operated under a system in which licensed firearm dealers send the names of those seeking to buy a gun to the NICS, where the agency is able to instantly run a background check in about 91 percent of the cases.
But some cases require further digging and for a variety of reasons, some records cannot be found until after the three-day period.
Of the 90,000 denials in 2014, more than 38,000 were denied because of a felony conviction or a misdemeanor conviction carrying a sentence of more than two years in prison.
The second-most common reason for denial is the purchaser is a fugitive from justice, according to the agency.
Other reasons for denial include the person being an unlawful drug user or addicted to a controlled substance; having a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence; someone who has been adjudicated with a mental health issue, an illegal alien or someone who was dishonorably discharged from the military; someone who has been indicted; or who has renounced their United States citizenship.
The NICS continues checking a purchaser’s background even after the three-day waiting period and up to 90 days, if necessary.
If the denial comes after the three-day period, the dealer is contacted, according to the agency, to see if the gun was transferred. In some cases, stores wait until a check is complete before selling. In others, even though the store is open to a sale, the buyer can change their mind. So the number who actually wind up with guns after background check submisssions isn’t known.
Over the past decade, the agency has had to track down almost 32,000 people who the FBI eventually determined should not own a firearm but who had been allowed to buy a gun, The News reported last year.
The Upstate’s two congressmen, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy and U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, both Republicans, have not favored changing the background check waiting period.
“The Administration’s focus should be bringing the background check system into the 21st Century by utilizing technology to allow for information to be communicated more efficiently, not on ways to curtail the rights of law abiding citizens,” Duncan told The News. “Perhaps if the Obama Administration spent more time enforcing the laws currently on the books and improving its processes, and less time vilifying gun owners, mistakes like this would not be made.”
Gowdy, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg and is a former prosecutor, said last year he voted in 2014 to increase funding for the background check system to ensure states are providing timely and accurate information for the database.
“This is about strengthening NICS to quickly and accurately provide records to ensure only law-abiding citizens can purchase and possess firearms, and it should not take a long time to identify individuals with criminal backgrounds, pending disqualifying charges, or statutorily specific mental instabilities who should not purchase or possess firearms,” he said then.
Several bills filed in South Carolina's Legislature in the past year sought to change the waiting period for background checks, expanding it to 28 days or until the check is complete, as Clyburn's bill in Congress does.
None of the bills received a hearing in the Senate, though one is planned in Charleston later this year.
Since lawmakers begin a new legislative session in January, any bill to change the waiting period will have to be refiled.
COLUMBIA — The number of times the FBI allowed sales of guns with incomplete background checks jumped by thousands last year even as the process received increased scrutiny and calls for reform following the mistaken sale of a gun to a South Carolina man accused of shooting nine people in a black Charleston church.
In 2015, 271,359 background checks of gun buyers were incomplete after the federal government’s three-day limit, according to data provided by the FBI to The Greenville News. Of those, 9,063 were later denied. That means 9,063 people the FBI later determined should not be allowed to own a gun were allowed to buy guns because the agency could not complete a background check in time.
The FBI does not know how many background checks actually result in gun sales so even though more than 9,000 checks came after the three-day waiting period, it cannot say how many of those involved people who walked out of a store with a firearm.
But a good indication of those who get them who shouldn’t are the FBI's retrieval requests, which it sends to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to pick up guns if it believes a firearm was sold and the buyer should not own one. In 2015, according to the agency, it sent 2,892 such requests, up from 2,511 such requests in 2014.
There is no indication in any of the FBI data what happened after it sent such requests.
Last year The News reported that the FBI gave the green light to 6,000 gun purchasers in 2014 who it later determined should not own a gun.
Requests overall for firearm background checks increased by 10 percent last year, according to the agency.
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn of Columbia, assistant leader of Democrats in the House, has proposed the Background Check Completion Act, which would prevent a gun from being transferred by a licensed dealer until the background check is finished.
“The latest numbers show the problem is not going away, but getting worse,” he told The News. “Congress must pass my bill, the Background Check Completion Act, to close the Charleston Loophole and keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of people the law already says should not own them. The policy should be very simple: no check, no sale.”
Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of nine people at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on June 17, 2015, was allowed to purchase his .45-caliber handgun at a Columbia store because federal authorities could not locate the arrest records within the three-day period that showed a drug charge the FBI says would have disqualified him from purchasing a gun.
Licensed firearm dealers can proceed with a sale if no determination is made by the FBI during the three-day waiting period, though some, such as Wal-Mart, wait until a check is complete before transferring the weapon.
For 2015, the FBI reported a total of 23.1 million background checks through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System, up from a total of 20.9 the year before. The numbers through July are on pace to surpass those of 2015, with 16 million checks thus far, according to the agency. However, generally more than half of those are processed by states who prefer to do their own background checks or at least some of them. In 2014, the NICS staff processed 8.2 million checks and denied slightly more than 90,000.
There were 326,997 checks initiated as the result of requests through South Carolina firearms dealers in 2015, up from 289,764 in 2014, according to the agency.
Since 1998, the nation has operated under a system in which licensed firearm dealers send the names of those seeking to buy a gun to the NICS, where the agency is able to instantly run a background check in about 91 percent of the cases.
But some cases require further digging and for a variety of reasons, some records cannot be found until after the three-day period.
Of the 90,000 denials in 2014, more than 38,000 were denied because of a felony conviction or a misdemeanor conviction carrying a sentence of more than two years in prison.
The second-most common reason for denial is the purchaser is a fugitive from justice, according to the agency.
Other reasons for denial include the person being an unlawful drug user or addicted to a controlled substance; having a misdemeanor conviction for domestic violence; someone who has been adjudicated with a mental health issue, an illegal alien or someone who was dishonorably discharged from the military; someone who has been indicted; or who has renounced their United States citizenship.
The NICS continues checking a purchaser’s background even after the three-day waiting period and up to 90 days, if necessary.
If the denial comes after the three-day period, the dealer is contacted, according to the agency, to see if the gun was transferred. In some cases, stores wait until a check is complete before selling. In others, even though the store is open to a sale, the buyer can change their mind. So the number who actually wind up with guns after background check submisssions isn’t known.
Over the past decade, the agency has had to track down almost 32,000 people who the FBI eventually determined should not own a firearm but who had been allowed to buy a gun, The News reported last year.
The Upstate’s two congressmen, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy and U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, both Republicans, have not favored changing the background check waiting period.
“The Administration’s focus should be bringing the background check system into the 21st Century by utilizing technology to allow for information to be communicated more efficiently, not on ways to curtail the rights of law abiding citizens,” Duncan told The News. “Perhaps if the Obama Administration spent more time enforcing the laws currently on the books and improving its processes, and less time vilifying gun owners, mistakes like this would not be made.”
Gowdy, who represents Greenville and Spartanburg and is a former prosecutor, said last year he voted in 2014 to increase funding for the background check system to ensure states are providing timely and accurate information for the database.
“This is about strengthening NICS to quickly and accurately provide records to ensure only law-abiding citizens can purchase and possess firearms, and it should not take a long time to identify individuals with criminal backgrounds, pending disqualifying charges, or statutorily specific mental instabilities who should not purchase or possess firearms,” he said then.
Several bills filed in South Carolina's Legislature in the past year sought to change the waiting period for background checks, expanding it to 28 days or until the check is complete, as Clyburn's bill in Congress does.
None of the bills received a hearing in the Senate, though one is planned in Charleston later this year.
Since lawmakers begin a new legislative session in January, any bill to change the waiting period will have to be refiled.
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