Pointless Question

[Mssr. Eleganté]

I'm not sure if you are already clear on this, but the only reason the CMP asks for your race is because they need that information to run the NICS check on you. The FBI NICS operator asks for it, so CMP asks for it. When the FBI stops asking for your race as part of the NICS check, then the CMP will stop asking for it too.

Q: How will NICS actually work?

A: Once a dealer and buyer are prepared to conclude a transfer, a retailer who does NICS checks by contacting the FBI system directly by phone will do the following:
1) Call a NICS operator by toll-free number and confirm his identity with his FFL number and dealer-selected password.
2) Provide the operator with the name, date-of-birth, sex and race of the potential buyer and the type of transfer--handgun or long gun. A buyer with a common name may, at his option, provide his Social Security number to help speed the check.
3) The system will check the data against its database of prohibited persons. If there is no "hit," the sale will be approved. The system will assign a NICS Transaction Number (NTN) to the approval. The dealer will log the NTN on the form 4473, and the transfer will proceed.
4) Partially completed forms 4473, where a proposed sale has been denied, will be required to be retained by the FFL per BATF regulations.
5) When a "hit" occurs, the dealer will receive instruction to delay the transaction. A "delay" response indicates that the check turned up information that requires further review by an analyst, who will contact the dealer by return call "within a couple of hours," the FBI says.
While the law provides three business days for the FBI to respond, the FBI anticipates that virtually every delay will be handled within a day. If records require further investigation, the FBI may take up to three days to issue either a proceed or a denial. There will be an appeals process for purchasers who feel they were denied in error, and dealers will be furnished with forms for this process.

[Seesm]

yeah I do "other" when I can...

[ZRX61]

I have a couple of friends who have Rhodesian fathers & American mothers. They always put down "African American" even tho they are white

[jamesob]

I've about got my first CMP order ready. On page 1A CMP asks for the purchaser's race, a question which I regard as none of their business. Private organizations usually won't insist on this, but with the fed. government sometimes objecting does no good. Has anyone tried not answering this, and if so what happened?

7x57

just put what race you are, its there for a reason. it's there to verify that your john smith the white guy and not john smith the african american or whatever.

[ke6guj]

I have a couple of friends who have Rhodesian fathers & American mothers. They always put down "African American" even tho they are white

In high school, I remember a guy from South Africa who always claimed "African American" on any forms. He marked African American on his college admissions applications and got accepted somewhere. I never heard what happened when he showed up for orientation.

[7x57]

When the FBI stops asking for your race as part of the NICS check, then the CMP will stop asking for it too.

Thanks for the comments, folks. The above is probably the important point; I knew that, but wasn't thinking about it too carefully. The fact is that I've filled that out on ATF forms before, on the theory that I.D. is at least arguably a legitimate reason to ask (as another poster pointed out, and unlike most cases of statistics-keeping). As I said the odds of finding another person with my name are vanishingly small, but it's pointless to make an issue of it now.

7x57