Background Checks

[Kyle1886]

Personally, I blame a lot on the lack "Work Ethic". Very few folks do their required job, assuming they know their job in the first place.

Painting with a broad brush? Yes and you can see it everyday regardless of the agency or business.

Respectfully
Kyle

[FalconLair]

Agreed. Why do I need a ten-day cooling off period when I'm a CCW holder who happens to be carrying when I'm buying a gun?

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the way the courts seen it is that since you already own a gun you're not being denied anything concerning your rights by having to wait 10 days for another one

which, IMHO, didn't really address the issue for there being a 10 day wait at all, the "cooling off" period - it wasn't an issue of how fast you needed to wait for a firearm, it was by knowing that you already had a firearm the 10 day wait wasn't of any real value by virtue of its concept because it wouldn't affect your "cooling off" at all

[unusedusername]

One of the big flaws in NICS is that it relies on people feeding data into it.

Systems with databases are my bread and butter. This is a problem with *all* databases, not just NICS.

You can "sort of" automate the data entry by copying data from other databases, but since many police departments run homebrewed information systems, we would be looking at each department hiring a DB consultant at $400/hr to integrate. This wouldn't solve the problem if the officer involved does not fill out a report. You'd also need to involve a Judge in the flow someplace due to the "pesky" (sarcasm) due process requirement. Add in another $400/hr database consultant here for integration between NICS and the local court systems.

You can completely automate the data entry by using sensors, but good luck figuring out how to do that. If you can make an algorithm that can tell from a webcam both what someone's identity is and also if they are threat to themselves or others then I have a PhD in computer vision for you.

The current NICS system does not incentivise local jurisdictions to spend money to fix the problem. The "Fix NICS" bill makes a lot of this better. The Feds can't "order" the local PD to do things (a good thing, generally) so some places like probably SF and LA won't play ball, then blame the Feds when it blows up in their face.

[unusedusername]

More fun facts for you...

California is the only state that maintains a "Prohibited Persons" list for firearms...the APPS system (Armed Prohibited Persons System) which was implemented around 2006. Since it's inception, however, the list has never been even remotely close to zero. At times there have been almost 40K names on the list. That is 40K people who were believed to have as many as 60K firearms that aren't supposed to.

The lowest the list has ever been appears to have been around 2015/2016 with about 10K names and 20K firearms. It is, of course, difficult to monitor this since the information in the list is extremely confidential. I suspect in part because if people knew that we can't even enforce the current laws on the books and/or don't have enough resources to go after the known criminals, they might be opposed to implementing even more gun control...that obviously can't be supported.

And this is just one state.

There is a reason that an entry in APPS isn't good enough to get a search warrant. Judges hand out warrants like popcorn, but even in California where the courts irrationally hate guns, you can't get a warrant from APPS.

They have a bunch of names in there of people who don't exist, have been dead for years, or have court cases where the result didn't make them prohibited. APPS is based on Automated Firearms System (DROS registration) records, DMV records, and a bunch of court cases that were typed in by hand. If someone moves then does not update their address with DMV then APPS can't "find" you, and might make a move on whomever moved into the place you used to live. If you use a stolen identity to buy a gun, then the gun is registered to someone other then the person who bought it. If that person later commits a crime then they get listed in APPS despite never buying a gun.

People that buy guns under a bridge never get listed since their illegal gun dealer doesn't run a DROS.

They would need to do significant (illegal) data integrations in order to make an up to date list of person/address/prohibited-status.

There is a reason it costs the state $5k per firearm for recovered guns under APPS. Most of the list is "junk".