More gun sales than ever are slipping through the federal background check system – 186,000 last year, a rate of 512 gun sales a day, as states fail to consistently provide thorough, real-time updates on criminal and mental histories to the FBI.
Black Friday opens the busiest season for gun purchases, when requests for background checks speed up to nearly two a second, testing the limits of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. An estimated team of 500 are responsible for running all background checks and an estimated two percent of the time they don’t even receive the info in time.
By federal law, NICS researchers must race against the clock: They have until the end of the third business day following an attempted firearm purchase to determine whether or not a buyer is eligible. If three business days pass without a federal response, buyers can legally get their guns, whether or not the check was completed.
