I got a coworker who ordered a new rifle online.
It arrived today and he went to the FFL to pick it up.
After waiting for several minutes... the NICS check came back as denied.
The FFL told him he has to contact the government to appeal and provided him with a transaction number.

Anyone ever had this happen to you?
Or if you're an FFL... seen it happen to someone else?

What kind of shit show is he in for?

I work at a LGS and have had it happen to people several times…..how much of a shit show? Depends on what is reporting on their record….I’ve seen people jammed up due to a court case from a verbal incident that took place in a parking lot, some Karen did call the police and he got breach…but then it was thrown out of court …. It cleared up but took a month for the court decision to get cleared.

IDK but I would be thinking why this happened. Does he have a common last name or some petty drug conviction he forgot about? Mistakes happen all the time. I was at the DMV which is run by the Highway Patrol. Guy in front of me filled out the necessary paperwork for renewal and they told him there was a warrant out for his arrest. Turns out it was criminal brother.

I'm another who has seen a denial cleared up on appeal thru proper state paperwork. It could be a while. If he has open court case for possible prohibited charge, that's a no-no. He'll need to wait till conclusion even if it's a mix up.

Doesn’t surprise me; I’ve been delayed more than a couple of times despite being an LEO at the time. It just takes overlap information with a toad to temporarily jam you up. Always got cleared up but one time took almost 3 days.

Buddy of mine gets delayed almost every time. Fairly common Hispanic name.

I got delays in Washington nearly every time. Haven't had one since I moved to Arizona. I have a common enough name that a quick google turns up a couple "no wonder" type results.

When they are busy, I get delayed or denied. It should clear.

Here of late it seems like there are a lot more denied. And within a couple hours, switched back to delayed, and finally to proceed.

I don't know how the NICS check works behind the scenes...
But I imagine it's basically just some .gov employee who gets a phone call or a thing that pops up on the computer to approve/deny an application.

From what yall are saying, it implies that they just get busy so they end up doing shoddy work?
"Omg another damn nics check! I'm too busy for this! Application denied!"

Then when they're less busy (or if you get a different person) they actually do the due diligence and approve?

Hmm I suppose it could also be a server issue...
Like if they're super busy, the server doesn't have enough CPU resources to properly process the application so it just defaults to "Denied!"

Working in a gun shop I will see it every so often. There's usually some bit of legit-looking info out there in whatever databases NICS references that raises the red flag and ultimately causes the denial. We just had a customer who got denied this past week, but in the recent past bought a couple of guns from us without drama. In fact he actually was approved for this gun prior but had gone back to his former hometown to visit family for several weeks and was unable to get back in time to pick up his pistol in the allotted 30 days that the Feds require. So we ran it again and this time around it came back as denied. Naturally the whole episode has left him perplexed and more than a little frustrated.

We've had others where the customer had their gun rights restored only to have the slow processing of the restoration and the updating of that throughout the databases come back and bite the person with a denial, only to have it come back revised as a proceed days later.

Generally if NICS is having system problems or is suffering an actual outage, the default is a automatic DELAY status, not an outright denial.

 
I maintain my AZ CCW permit, though we have concealed carry with no permit now. There are a few benefits to having the actual permit, one of which is no NICS check when buying a firearm.

Mine have been delayed nearly every time I purchase. Always gets approved the following day. I don't think I have a very common name at all but the ffl told me you'd be surprised. It's a pain when I need to go out of town to purchase. Wife won a gun in a raffle a few weeks back. She had to get a permit to purchase because I could not get it for her which I knew would be the case. We have to go to a specific Runnings store to get it. It's a couple hours away. If she gets delayed that means an overnight hotel stay.

I think there is an email process the ffl can use rather than calling it in which I've heard is a better process and delays are far less frequent but not all ffl's are set up to do it.

As an FFL in NY I had2 denials that took about a year for the customer's to get cleared up. Delayed is delayed and I always had them proceed within a day or two but denied is denied and doesn't change. Customer gets a transaction number and go online to start the appeal process.

Have never done the background check at a FFL... years ago I tried to buy a suppressor and was denied for that then 4 years ago applied for a Maine permit and they did a background check and got denied....

Have bought many guns through my local FFL... I have an S.C. concealed weapons permit which bypasses the background check... the interesting thing is I'm pretty sure every year I renew S.C. has to run a check on me with the FBI .... but I presume the conflict is the crime I was convicted of in 1978 is now a misdemeanor .... and also non violent.. growing a pot plant while in college. Seems the FBI still considers me a threat to the world for this.

Oh and as for the tax stamp for the suppressor... I sent the BAFTE inspector copies of my conviction and current listing of S.C. state laws showing this was a misdemeanor and she sent it to the FBI and they still denied me. As for Maine I sent the same to them and they sent me a permit.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:
 
I maintain my AZ CCW permit, though we have concealed carry with no permit now. There are a few benefits to having the actual permit, one of which is no NICS check when buying a firearm.

Same here in Texas, we do not need a permit to carry but it sure aids in firearm purchases.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I have an S.C. concealed weapons permit which bypasses the background check... the interesting thing is I'm pretty sure every year I renew S.C. has to run a check on me with the FBI ....

Here in Utah the state reportedly does a daily database match to the federal database. So we concealed weapons permit holders get background checked every day.

I am both an FFL and an attorney that restores firearms rights for people. There are thousands of issues that could be happening, many already mentioned including mix up/common name, something from his past that was just entered into the system, mistakes in paperwork, all kinds of inane to serious situations/reasons. The key is that he needs to ask the FBI why so it someone can help him to understand the problem, if there is in fact one, and fix it for him.

When we were buying back our 31s, four coworkers got delayed and one got denied. The delayed ones cleared up by the next day. The denied one called and provided more info and got cleared. Common hispanic name. It happens to him every time.

Don’t know if this is an issue but he ordered a gun and had it sent to me. When he filled out the 4473 I told him to put his social on it. When I ran it, it was an instant proceed. I went back to work and asked the four delays if they put their ssn on the 4473. They all said no.

So I wonder if that’s a thing?