Good afternoon!

On Saturday, October 22, 2016, the NICS Section will be implementing a temporary processing change.

Any transaction requiring review will be automatically placed into delay rather than being transferred to the FBI. Historically, the vast majority of NICS transactions, 76 percent, are provided an immediate response.

The remaining are transferred to the FBI for review due to a descriptive match of the potential purchaser with a record in one of the databases searched by the NICS. This is known as the Transfer Process.

In a normal NICS operational realm, this real-time transfer process allows the FBI to assess whether the transaction could be given a final status by quickly reviewing the record(s) with which the potential purchaser matched and when possible allows the FFL to receive a response to additional transactions while he/she is still on the phone or actively engaged within the NICS E-Check system.

However, due to increasing volume, the FBI staff has not been able to provide the Transfer Process service without negatively impacting FFLs with long wait times.

With ever-increasing volume, the FBI continues to look for opportunities to improve efficiency both for internal FBI staff and for FFLs. On high volume days, such as a Saturday, FFLs can often be on hold or in researching mode (for E-Check users) for an extended period of time.

Therefore, the FBI would like to try a new approach this Saturday to see if there is benefit to placing transactions immediately into delay once a descriptive match is detected.

By doing so, FBI staff may be able to process transactions faster and respond with a determination in a more efficient manner rather than keeping FFLs in a holding/researching status unnecessarily.

By not having the Transfer Process in place, all staff can be dedicated to work delayed transactions rather than being scheduled to answer phone calls and review E-Check transactions as part of the Transfer Process.

The operational results of this change will be evaluated by the FBI early next week. If indeed benefits are realized for both the FBI and the FFL user community, long term changes may be considered.

Thank you,
The NICS Business Relations Team


Thanks,
Marc

Marc Chamberlain
NICS Liaison Specialist
FBI NICS Section
Office Phone: (304) 625-7544
Mobile Phone: (304) 841-2178

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(Also posted to the political forum)

Got that message in my inbox today and it had me scratching my head. I'd guess about 30% of the checks I do, via phone, get a "further review". With this policy those folks will leave here without their guns and will have to come back another day; I don't see how this is a good move.

The shop owners I know are getting about 1/3 or greater "Further Review"
and
they are only getting about 1/3 call back approvals

they end up delivering the other 2/3's on the "delayed to " date without confirmation

one shop had a call back with a "Denied" greater than a week after the "delayed to" date

Sounds like they need to hire more people. On the other hand, I see it as a good thing there are so many people buying firearms.

Here in Alaska, we are not required to have a permit to carry a concealed weapon. However, if you do voluntarily and at your own expense take a concealed carry course which includes a background check, you can then purchase firearms within the state NICS exempt. I've bought quite a few guns in the past few years without a NICS check.

Perhaps, if other states adopted such a policy it would reduce the FBI's NICS processing workload.