The Reality of Blumenthal’s Background Check Bill

Sen. Dick Blumenthal (D-Stolen Valor) introduced a bill a couple of months ago regarding the current background check system. This is being billed as a simple improvement, a way to make sure the wrong people don’t get guns because NICS isn’t quick enough.

On the surface, this seems to be no big deal. In fact, I suspect the media will frame it as such with every opportunity in the coming months. 

The bill doesn’t do a whole lot beyond simply requiring gun stores to hold onto sales until they get the all-clear from NICS.

No big, right?

Well, it is, as Larry Keane of the NSSF noted last week.

The law currently allows, but does not require, firearm retailers to transfer the firearm after three business days if nothing comes back to deny the transfer. That’s the safety feature that keeps the government from denying a legal firearm transfer through bureaucratic red tape.

The BCCA would scrap that delay period by putting background checks into an unending cycle by striking the relevant clause in federal statute, effectively requiring a completed check before a transfer can be finalized with a “proceed” response in all cases.

The bill also includes a heavy technical change, removing the recently enacted bipartisan compromise statutory language, which these Senators who were in office during the bill’s passage voted for, that caps the enhanced under-21 background check timeline at “no case more than 10 business days.” If Congress is going to demand “completion” as the prerequisite to exercising a fundamental Constitutional right, eliminating clear time limits is the opposite of accountability.

Sen. Blumenthal and proponents of the proposal rely on the myth of the “Charleston loophole,” but the hard data shows a system that overwhelmingly works and, when it delays, resolves quickly.

Ignoring Facts

In 2019, 89.44 percent of checks were completed immediately, just over 10 percent were initially delayed and 98 percent of delayed transactions were resolved — most within the first three business days. Under current law, the Brady Act includes a Due Process backstop: after three full business days, a firearm retailer may legally transfer the firearm if NICS still has not issued a final answer, unless state law prohibits the transfer. The FBI likewise explains that if it can’t make a determination within three business days, the dealer may transfer the firearm (subject to state law).

Those cases that remain unresolved are a fraction of all transfers. Just 0.7 percent of delayed checks are never resolved and only a minuscule 0.01 percent of transfers resulted in a retrieval referral because the purchaser turned out to be prohibited.

While anti-gunners like to claim that the Charleston shooting shows that this is a system “riddled with loopholes,” as Keane quotes, the truth is that it’s a minuscule problem at best.

I mean, if I went through my life with only 0.01 percent of errors like that, most would call me a great success in everything I did.

The issue here isn’t that NICS is broken or that far too many people are getting guns simply because of delays. The issue is that there’s a mechanism in place that prevents officials from using NICS to delay gun sales indefinitely.

The more roadblocks you throw up in front of people, the less likely they are to continue a gun purchase. Knowing they might have to wait three days is one thing. Knowing that it could take weeks or months just to be told you have been granted permission to exercise your constitutionally protected right is another.

Meanwhile, most criminals aren’t getting their guns by purchasing them at gun stores in the first place. A 2019 survey found that only 10 percent got them from gun stores. Another 0.8 percent got them at gun shows, which likely consists mostly of licensed dealers.

Of those roughly 11 percent, the survey couldn’t note how many made those purchases before they’d been convicted of a disqualifying offense. Based on the numbers Keane cites, it looks like no amount of delays would have stopped these people from getting guns.

But it would stop a lot of other people from going through with a purchase simply because no one enjoys being treated like a criminal, which is exactly what Blumenthal’s bill will do.

With no mechanism in place to encourage proper staffing of NICS, future administrations could manage to stretch out delays indefinitely simply by reallocating resources within the FBI. Instead of maintaining sufficient personnel to meet the needs, they could strip the entire staff bare until it’s too much work for them to ever get done in a reasonable time.

The three-day limit was put in place to discourage that sort of thing.

Blumenthal knows this. He and his buddies backing this bill just don’t care.

What’s more, I suspect that the moment anti-gunners get the chance, they’ll make this happen unless we can show the public why this is a bad idea. Considering the media today, that’s easier said than done.

Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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