Keeping guns away from folks who shouldn't have them is one of the common sense desires expressed by just about everybody in the gun debate. There's been lots of talk about the quality of data in NICS (National Instant Crimminal back-ground check System) with the NRA recently pointing out the disparity between the number of people institutionalized for mental health reasons compared to the relatively lower number of people in the NICS. For a detailed explanation of the NICS, click here.
From the site:
Federal Categories of Persons Prohibited From Receiving
A delay response from the NICS Section indicates the subject of the background check has been matched with either a state or federal potentially prohibiting record containing a similar name and/or similar descriptive features (name, sex, race, date of birth, state of residence, social security number, height, weight, or place of birth). The federally prohibiting criteria are as follows:
1. If you owe back-taxes at any level
2. If you have been cited by a court for being delinquent on child support payments
3. If you have a suspended hunting license
4. If you have a suspended driver's license
5. If you're on the TSA No-Fly list
#1 & #2 are simple economic propositions...if you can't pay your bills you shouldn't be spending money on a gun.
#3 & #4 prevent people who have already show an inability to follow the law regarding potentially deadly "weapons".
#5...well, shouldn't this already be on the list?
Of course if the data isn't being maintained and kept current, then the NICS is of little value. I saw a report showing less than 2% of applicants were denied via the NICS. It could mean that crimminals know the exclusion criteria and decide not to even try to buy a gun. Or it could mean that the data in the NICS is so bad that people who shouldn't pass the check, actually are passing. My inherit lack of faith in the federal government's ability to manage a database pushes me towards the latter.
From the site:
Federal Categories of Persons Prohibited From Receiving
A delay response from the NICS Section indicates the subject of the background check has been matched with either a state or federal potentially prohibiting record containing a similar name and/or similar descriptive features (name, sex, race, date of birth, state of residence, social security number, height, weight, or place of birth). The federally prohibiting criteria are as follows:
- A person who has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year or any state offense classified by the state as a misdemeanor and is punishable by a term of imprisonment of more than two years.
- Persons who are fugitives of justice—for example, the subject of an active felony or misdemeanor warrant.
- An unlawful user and/or an addict of any controlled substance; for example, a person convicted for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past year; or a person with multiple arrests for the use or possession of a controlled substance within the past five years with the most recent arrest occurring within the past year; or a person found through a drug test to use a controlled substance unlawfully, provided the test was administered within the past year.
- A person adjudicated mental defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution or incompetent to handle own affairs, including dispositions to criminal charges of found not guilty by reason of insanity or found incompetent to stand trial.
- A person who, being an alien, is illegally or unlawfully in the United States.
- A person who, being an alien except as provided in subsection (y) (2), has been admitted to the United States under a non-immigrant visa.
- A person dishonorably discharged from the United States Armed Forces.
- A person who has renounced his/her United States citizenship.
- The subject of a protective order issued after a hearing in which the respondent had notice that restrains them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of such partner. This does not include ex parte orders.
- A person convicted in any court of a misdemeanor crime which includes the use or attempted use of physical force or threatened use of a deadly weapon and the defendant was the spouse, former spouse, parent, guardian of the victim, by a person with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited in the past with the victim as a spouse, parent, guardian or similar situation to a spouse, parent or guardian of the victim.
- A person who is under indictment or information for a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.
1. If you owe back-taxes at any level
2. If you have been cited by a court for being delinquent on child support payments
3. If you have a suspended hunting license
4. If you have a suspended driver's license
5. If you're on the TSA No-Fly list
#1 & #2 are simple economic propositions...if you can't pay your bills you shouldn't be spending money on a gun.
#3 & #4 prevent people who have already show an inability to follow the law regarding potentially deadly "weapons".
#5...well, shouldn't this already be on the list?
Of course if the data isn't being maintained and kept current, then the NICS is of little value. I saw a report showing less than 2% of applicants were denied via the NICS. It could mean that crimminals know the exclusion criteria and decide not to even try to buy a gun. Or it could mean that the data in the NICS is so bad that people who shouldn't pass the check, actually are passing. My inherit lack of faith in the federal government's ability to manage a database pushes me towards the latter.
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