The FBI didn't finish over 1 million gun background checks in time to stop a sale in 2020 and 2021

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

There were over 1 million opportunities for someone to buy a gun from a licensed dealer without a completed background check in 2020 and 2021, according to an FBI report released last month.

In all, 1,002,274 background checks — or 4.2 percent — took longer than three business days in 2020 and 2021, a higher share than any other period since at least 2014, according to data compiled by NBC News. After the third business day, federal law allows dealers to sell weapons while the background check is still pending, which potentially puts weapons in the hands of people who can’t legally own a gun because of mental illness or their criminal history.

The FBI ultimately completed about one-fourth of those delayed background checks and discovered that 11,564 people were able to buy guns in 2020 and 2021 before the check showed that they should not have been allowed to do so, according to the FBI report. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then had to retrieve the weapons.

But that number only accounts for a fraction of the delayed background checks. The FBI never completed 734,604 checks from January 2020 through November 2021, the most recent data available, because they took longer than 88 days — after which the bureau must stop its research and purge the unfinished checks from its system.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fbi-gun-background-checks-delayed-rcna36391

[Wounded Bear]

1. GRAs prevented computerizing and automating the process...

all so they could freely obtain their "hobby" guns, and if a "few whackos" get guns they shouldn't? That's the price of freedumb.

[former9thward]

2. I don't know what GRAs are but the background process is computerized.

It is a matter of assigning personnel to the task. I have a records request to the FBI on a legal matter that was made in Jan 2017. They say I might get it in the Spring of 2023.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Gun Rights Activist...nt

[sl8]

3. I'd heard similar about the ATF's 4473 and sales databases, but not NICS.

Do you have a source?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. We can't hire enough agents to keep up with manufacturers, even if we wanted that many.

[Brainfodder]

5. Just another epic fail on his watch.

[Fla_Democrat]

7. I'm waiting on someone to run the numbers

and freak out.