Who is barred in current federal gun background checks?
WASHINGTON - What disqualifies someone from buying a gun? Background checks are now at the forefront of the debate on guns, but what exactly do they flag? And could they be used to create a national gun registry, as the National Rifle Association has warned?
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WASHINGTON - What disqualifies someone from buying a gun?
Background checks are now at the forefront of the debate on guns, but what exactly do they flag? And could they be used to create a national gun registry, as the National Rifle Association has warned?
The FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) website lays out 10 federal disqualifiers that bar an individual from purchasing a gun. They are:
Having been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison.
Being a fugitive from justice.
Being an "unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance."
Having been adjudicated as having mental-health problems or having been committed to a mental institution.
Being in the United States illegally or having been admitted under a nonimmigrant visa.
Having been dishonorably discharged from the military.
Having renounced U.S. citizenship.
Being subject to a restraining order.
Having been convicted of a domestic-violence offense.
Being under indictment for a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year.
In addition, there are state-specific rules (which account for just 0.2 percent of the records on file that would bar someone from buying a gun, according to FBI data) and "the federally denied persons file." The latter, a catchall for states to report disqualifying information that might not fit into one of the categories listed by the FBI, accounts for just 0.34 percent of the total files that could pop up in background checks and bar a gun sale.
People in the categories listed by the FBI are the ones who would likely also be blocked from purchases at gun shows or over the Internet if the expanded background-check plan proposed Wednesday by Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) advances in Congress.
But not everyone would be subject to background checks. Anyone could still obtain a gun from a family member, friend, or acquaintance under the Toomey-Manchin proposal's exception for "personal transfers."
How often are gun purchases denied?
Between Nov. 30, 1998, and March 31 of this year, more than 166 million gun transactions were logged by the federal background-check system, according to government data. As of March 31, the system had denied 1,015,699 gun sales - or less than 1 percent.
More than two-thirds of those denials were for criminal convictions.
As for the question of a national gun registry, the background-check website says: "The NICS is not to be used to establish a federal firearm registry."
Information on background checks that result in approval of a gun sale - meaning someone clears the background check - "is destroyed in accordance with NICS regulations," the website says. Furthermore, "all identifying information on allowed transactions" must be destroyed "prior to the start of the next NICS operational day."
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