Focus Report, Volume 77, Number 18, April 2002 Page: 3
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House Research Organization Page 3
dealers contact the FBI to check on purchases of long
* guns and contact a state agency to check the background
of potential handgun buyers.
Federal licensees contact the NICS by telephone and,
about 71 percent of the time, are told to proceed with
the sale immediately, usually within 30 seconds after
submitting information on the purchaser. Sales can be
delayed for up to three business days while the NICS
continues to research the purchaser. If the background
check is not completed within three days, a sale can
proceed at the dealer's discretion while the check
continues. About 95 percent of the time, dealers are
told to proceed or to deny the sale within two hours,
according to NICS data. Federal funds pay for the
background check system.
In its first 25 months of operation, the NICS processed
about 18.5 million transactions, about half of which were
put through the FBI's instant check system directly by
federal firearm licensees, according to the most recent
NICS operation report. The FBI denied about 157,000
sales, and states that do not use the FBI system exclusively
denied about the same number of sales. In about two-
thirds of the sales denied by the FBI, the potential buyer
was a felon; in 14 percent, the buyer had a misdemeanor
conviction for domestic violence; and in the remaining
cases, the buyer was disqualified because one of the
other factors listed on page 2.
Federal law and private transactions. Private
persons selling their own firearms need not have a
federal license, inspect the identification or check the
background of potential buyers, or keep records of gun
transactions. A private seller may not transfer a firearm
to another if the seller knows or has reasonable cause to
believe that federal law prohibits the receiver of the
firearm from possessing one. However, because private
sellers do not conduct background checks, they often
have no way of knowing whether a person is eligible to
receive a gun.
Private persons also are prohibited from transferring
guns to other private persons who they know or have
reasonable cause to believe are not residents of the state
in which the seller lives. It is a federal offense for a private
seller to transfer a handgun to anyone under 18 years
old and for juveniles to possess handguns. Exceptions
to the prohibitions affecting juveniles include use for
ranching, hunting, fishing, and target practice if the
juvenile's parent or guardian provides prior writtenStates That Require
Background Checks
The 18 states shown below require background
checks on all buyers at gun shows, or they impose
other requirements on buyers, such as requiring a
state-issued permit or firearms identification card to
buy certain types of firearms.
In some states that use the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's system to check gun buyers'
backgrounds, private sellers who are required to run a
background check before making a sale at a gun
show must prevail upon a federal firearm licensee at
the show to run the check. In other states in which a
state law enforcement agency runs background
checks for sales by federal firearm licensees, private
sellers at gun shows also must contact the agency for
a check. In some of these cases, the law enforcement
agency is present at the show to run the checks.California
Colorado
Connecticut
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
MinnesotaMissouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South DakotaSource: Americans ftr Gun Safety Foundation.
consent. Again, private sellers often have no way of
knowing whether they would be violating these
prohibitions because they do not have to inspect buyers'
identification.
Texas law. While federal law sets the minimum
requirements for gun purchases, states and local
jurisdictions can enact more restrictive statutes. Texas
law does not require private individuals to conduct any
type of background check when they sell firearms at gun
shows.Page 3
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Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives. Research Organization. Focus Report, Volume 77, Number 18, April 2002, periodical, April 3, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth641620/m1/3/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.