Nevada Background Check Outage Comes to an End

Three weeks after the Nevada Department of Public Safety stopped running background checks on gun sales because its systems were taken offline after a cyberattack, FFLs in the state have finally gotten the good news they’ve been hoping for. 

The state resumed processing background checks on Sunday, September 14, though some delays might still take place as the agency wades through a backlog of requests that have been piling up since August 24, when the systems were taken offline. 

“I’m pleased to announce access to the Brady Firearms Unit was successfully restored this morning,” stated Governor Joe Lombardo. “I’m grateful to the Governor’s Technology Office and Department of Public Safety, who worked 24/7 to restore access to this essential public safety service.” 

… Since 8 a.m., licensed dealers could submit background checks electronically on the FFL portal.

The Brady Unit phone support has been restored, but non-portal users should expect short delays.

Brady staff are working extended hours to help meet the three-business-day statutory timeline for background check determinations.

Since transactions may remain under “pending review” longer than usual due to the surge.

 Late last week the National Shooting Sports Foundation called on Gov. Joe Lombardo to issue an emergency declaration that would allow FFLs to submit their queries directly to the National Instant Check System instead of having to use the Nevada Department of Public Safety as a middleman, but at a weekend press conference Lombardo didn’t respond to that request. Instead, the governor insisted that the NDPS would soon be up and running again. 

 In remarks lasting slightly more than 20 minutes, Lombardo reiterated that there is no evidence that personal information had been compromised, instead saying that the state believes the attacker received information related to internal state systems. The roughly 10 percent of systems that remain down include the state’s sex offender registry — which The Indy reported last week was down — and the state’s background check database.

“The fact that [the background check database] is currently down means we won’t be able to determine (a person’s) criminal history or their ability to purchase a gun or own a gun through the federal guidelines,” Lombardo said. “It’s a matter of going through dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s within that particular system to ensure that we have success before we release its availability. I am confident that we will release that in short order.”

No offense to the governor, but “in short order” would have been a couple of weeks ago. Gun shops had to deal with this outage since August 24, and the only customers who able to complete a purchase are those who have a valid Nevada concealed carry license. 

This has had a serious impact on the financial health of many gun shops, but it’s also put people at risk. Someone who doesn’t own a gun isn’t likely to have a carry license, so individuals who’ve decided to purchase a gun for the first time because of threats from an abusive ex, a stalker, or just violence in their neighborhood have been completely unable to exercise their right to keep and bear arms.

While this particular outage has been resolved, FFLs and their customers are still vulnerable to more delays in the future, thanks to Nevada’s status as a Point of Contact state for NICS. In their letter to Lombardo, the NSSF urged the governor to work with the legislature to “repeal Nevada’s POC mandate and return to direct NICS checks on a permanent basis.” 

That seems like a logical thing to do, given that cyberattacks like the one that crippled the background check system may very well happen again in the future. A right delayed is a right denied, and Nevada leaders need to do everything they can to ensure that the right to keep and bear arms can be exercised in a timely manner going forward. 

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