National Instant Criminal Background Check System - Order Process

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National Instant Criminal Background Check System

ACRONYM: NICS

ORIGINATOR:
Department/Agency Name: U.S. Department of Justice

Major Organization Subdivision: Federal Bureau of Investigation

Minor Organization Subdivision: Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division
Name of Unit:
Street Address: 1000 Custer Hollow Road
City: Clarksburg
State: West Virginia
Zip Code: 26306
Country: United States
Hours of Service: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Telephone: (304) 625-2000

ABSTRACT: The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) provides a method of checking available information to determine whether a person is disqualified from possessing a firearm under federal or state law. The NICS contains records on individuals who are disqualified from possessing a firearm. These records include an individual’s name, sex, race, other personal descriptive data, date of birth, state of residence, and sometimes a unique identifying number. The NICS also contains criminal information which may disqualify an individual from possessing a firearm under federal or state law.

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Check Background at Gun Shows

Background checks aren’t perfect, as we all know. They can’t absolutely predict future behavior; the Blacksburg killer at Virginia Tech (summer, 2007) may well have passed one, for example.

No gun law, however, can claim to prevent future acts of violence. A universal check would be valuable in the sense that it would restrict access by those who go to private sellers knowing they’d fail the check at a gun shop, or at a gun show — irregardless of the “gun show loophole,” discussed later. The background checks don’t keep people with clean records from becoming violent. But they keep those with criminal+records" rel="nofollow">criminal records from evading the NICS check system we now have in place.

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Gun Control - Chris Rock

NICS - Improving Gun Control

National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS)

Brady Act Requirements

In November 1993, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (Brady Act), Public Law 103-159, was signed into law requiring Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to request background checks on individuals attempting to purchase a firearm. The permanent provisions of the Brady Act, which went into effect on November 30, 1998, required the Attorney General to establish the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) that any FFL may contact by telephone or by other electronic means for information, to be supplied immediately, on whether receipt of a firearm by a prospective transferee would violate section 922 (g) or (n) of title 18, United States Code, or state law.

The NICS is a national system that checks available records in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), Interstate Identification Index (III), and the NICS Index to determine if prospective purchasers are disqualified from receiving firearms.

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