If you receive a “Delay” from the FBI, why do you not process the order after three days, as authorized by law?

September 16, 2014

Civilian Marksmanship Program▸Sales▸If you receive a “Delay” from the FBI, why do you not process the order after three days, as authorized by law?

First– we are not your regular gun dealer. The law that established the CMP exempted us from FFL requirements. We are not required to keep a ‘book’ or to ship only to another FFL. The law also specifies that we must have a completed ‘successful’ background check conducted for each sale. So – we cannot ship a rifle until we get a ‘proceed’ from the FBI. The three days after a ‘delay’ does not apply to us as it does to FFL licensed dealers. We can also ship direct to your home, where dealers cannot.

Second – the NICS check submission to the FBI provides no information about the firearm – no model, no serial number, nothing. It only provides the information about the individual.

Third – we input the information directly into the FBI ENICS system via computer (not by telephone). As soon as we do, the name shows up on the screen in a list with other names that we have input and not yet received a response. The initial status reads ‘new’. Every hour or so we check the list and some status will have changed to either ‘proceed’, ‘deny’ or ‘delay’. If we get the ‘proceed’, we print the information and attach it to the order and put the order in the tray (for the date order was received) for processing. If response was a ‘deny’, we cancel the order and prepare a letter and send it to the customer with information for the customer to appeal the ruling directly to the FBI.

If we get a ‘delay‘, we do nothing but keep checking the status until it changes. After 3-4 days, if the FBI does not give us a ‘proceed’ or ‘delay’, the NICS system changes the status to ‘open’. This is not something we do – it is the FBI NICS system. We track the status several times each day for up to 30 days. If after 30 days the NICS request still shows as open – we cancel the order and notify the customer to submit an appeal to the FBI.

The reason for waiting 30 days is that we have found after all these years that most ‘delays’ and ‘open’ do change to ‘proceed or ‘deny’ within that time. This is an arbitrary number of days. We can make it 29 or 28 or 15 or even 3. We just found that ’30’ works best in not jerking the customer or the FBI around. It does no good to ‘run it again’ daily – the status won’t change. The FBI does not give us any reasons why someone is on delay or denied. This is between the individual and the FBI.