Two of the most important reform measures being discussed in response to the Buffalo and Ovalde massacres – the inclusion of juvenile records in history checks and new restrictions on markets by a wider range of domestic criminals – depend on the effective operation of the check system. led by the FBI and already facing a huge increase in demand for weapons. “Almost everything they do is based on this system. “It’s the foundation,” said Mark Collins, a senior fellow at Brady, the weapons control team that played a key role in setting up the system in 1993. “The foundation is in trouble.” The National Historical Direct Control System – three giant, interconnected databases containing state and federal records collectively called “NICS” – is an administrative miracle, and even its critics admit it. In 2021, the system processed 40 million firearms transactions, 88 percent of them within minutes, and blocked hundreds of day-to-day transactions involving people with criminal records, mental health problems, drug addiction or other factors that prevented them from buy a gun. in accordance with state or federal law. However, despite its strengths, the system was designed almost three decades ago to operate at a fraction of its current capacity. It operates with the serious built-in restrictions introduced by the arms lobby, which has accelerated arms sales – introducing a provision that allows arms dealers to give their weapons to buyers if the investigation is not completed within three business days. And while all 50 states participate in the system, this remains technically voluntary, so the federal government has no power to order states to provide any records – or dictate a timetable for data delivery. This, many law enforcement officials believe, has contributed to persistent loopholes in the system that have been linked to many high-profile mass killings and many other less publicized crimes. Records of a buyer’s domestic violence, juvenile justice, and mental health history are among the most difficult to locate, collect, or even determine, according to individuals who have studied or worked with the history control system. The compromise legislation under consideration would open, for the first time, access to juvenile crime records and mental health records for shoppers aged 18 to 21. However, it can take years for protocols to be developed for states to transmit their data, reflecting the chronic challenges of collecting reliable mental health records. “I think there are potential gaps in the system that become more significant when you add all this new data,” said William G. Brooks III, chief of police in Norwood, Massachusetts. “Do I think there are many gaps in NICS? “No,” said Brooks, who serves on the board of the International Union of Police Chiefs, which has worked to improve the system. “But it’s just like anything else. It’s as good as the data. “ The Senate package under negotiation, with Texas Sen. John Cornyn representing Republicans and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy representing the system, includes increased funding for the system and incentives for states to pursue health care , along with funding to address these issues. However, it does not give the FBI significant new powers to force local governments to release the data needed to quickly conduct comprehensive audits. The federal history control system “breaks down in many ways,” said Benjamin Dowd-Arrow, a public health researcher at Florida State University who studies gun violence. “There is not always an interface to ensure that people are properly controlled,” he said. “So we end up with a broken system where some people slip under the radar.” Even the smallest mistake can lead, directly or indirectly, to tragedy. In 2014, a 15-year-old boy entered his high school in Marysville, Washington and fatally shot four students before committing suicide. The weapon he used was bought by his father, who acquired it after a history check failed to identify a protection order filed against him for assaulting his former partner, after local authorities failed to convict him of domestic abuse, something he should have had. stop selling immediately. In another case, in 2017, a gunman stormed a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and shot dead 26 people with a semi-automatic weapon. He had bought it because his background check did not include a conviction for domestic violence prior to his dismissal from the Air Force, which had not introduced the conviction into the system. The Senate hastily passed a bill to provide incentives for better record keeping among federal agencies. A separate but crucial issue, say proponents of gun control, is closing windows that allow private sellers to sell guns with absolutely no background checks. This idea, which Republicans opposed, was never seriously discussed in the current talks, in the interest of securing a bipartisan agreement that could garner 60 votes. “There are so many other ways that weapons are sold outside of this system, such as at gun shows, online or through private sales,” said Rebecca Fischer, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence. “It’s like going to the airport and being told that some should go through security and some should not,” added Lindsay Nichols of the Giffords Legal Center for the Prevention of Gun Violence. Over the years, gun control advocates have worked to address shortcomings in the history control system, but have met with persistent opposition from Republican lawmakers and the arms lobby, who have argued that existing state and federal history controls already limit its rights. Second Amendment. On a technical level, with the exception of sporadic malfunctions, NICS works quite well on a daily basis. Weapon shop owners – the first line of defense to identify disputed buyers – say the system often prevents them from selling a gun to the wrong person. Krys Dibella, co-owner of the Tobacco Valley Gun in East Windsor, Conn., Said that about a year and a half ago, a man with a pistol license went into his shop to buy a pistol. Mr Dibella said he had called the state police in Connecticut, one of the few states to run its own, stricter history control system, which is integrated into the NICS. “The cops said ‘please hold on’, and about 10 minutes later three police patrols showed up,” he recalled. “The police handcuffed him in the store and left with him.” The police only told him that the man had a pending warrant. The FBI in 2008 tried to quantify the gaps in the NICS files, but abandoned the effort several years later after facing logistical and funding problems. The most recent study, conducted by the non-profit National Consortium for Justice Information and Statistics in 2013, estimated that up to a quarter of all felony convictions “were not available” to the NICS. The time constraints imposed on surveys make the system even more vulnerable to errors. The biggest problem with NICS, in the eyes of its critics, is the so-called “Charleston window”, which allows buyers to pick up their weapons after three working days, even if they have not yet been fully tested, a scenario that can occur when a potential problem is identified that requires further investigation. The 72-hour rule, introduced at the behest of Republican lawmakers in the Brady bill negotiations three decades ago, played a direct role in one of the deadliest racist tensions in American history. A white militant who killed nine people at a predominantly black church in Charleston on stage in 2015 was allowed to take up arms after three working days, although the full examination had not been completed. It later emerged that the gunman should have been barred from buying a firearm because he had previously admitted to police that he was in possession of a controlled substance. However, confusion over the files of local law enforcement authorities prevented the authorities from locating the issue within the specified time frame. It is not known how many crimes were committed by buyers who were allowed to retrieve their weapons after three days of incomplete history checks – but between 5,000 and 6,500 firearms were seized each year by individuals later found to have been canceled, according to the FBI NICS for 2021. These people are considered so dangerous that armed agents with the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – the service in charge of recovering weapons – are called upon to drop whatever they do to retrieve weapons, according to current and former agents. The compromise now under consideration will address this issue closely, delaying purchases by 18- to 21-year-olds until the review of juvenile records is completed. Cassandra Crifassi, deputy director of the Center for Solution to Arms Violence at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said she was disappointed that the Senate was not considering extending the 72-hour period for all potential buyers, which has been set by many states. position. “This is a low-level fruit,” he said. “This is not about removing people’s weapons. “It’s time to give law enforcement authorities more time to make sure that people who should not have guns do not get them.” NICS works best when it comes to black-and-white measurements, such as a criminal record, officials say. However, all monitoring systems become significantly less reliable when the report is based on data, such as mental health records or reports of domestic violence, which are subject to more subjective interpretations by health care …
