2020年3月20日，犹他州奥勒姆的戴维森国防公司，一名工人正在补充AR-15枪支。美国枪支商店报告称，由于对冠状病毒的担忧引发了个人安全问题，枪支销售激增。
在联邦调查局(FBI)报告对潜在枪支购买者的背景调查出现前所未有的激增的一天后，由16名民主党美国参议员组成的联盟对枪支最终落入违禁购买者手中表示担忧。
在周四致美国联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗·瑞和酒精、烟草、火器和爆炸物管理局代理局长雷吉娜·伦巴多的一封信中，参议员们警告说，枪支销售的急剧增加可能会“压倒”美国联邦调查局甄别国内滥用者的能力，包括那些被禁止拥有枪支的人。
这封信是马萨诸塞州参议员埃德·马基和康涅狄格州参议员理查德·布卢门塔尔和克里斯·墨菲共同努力的结果新闻周刊。
联邦调查局主要负责通过其国家即时犯罪背景调查系统(NICS)进行背景调查，该系统搜索联邦调查局维护的三个数据库，以产生记录，表明潜在的枪支拥有者是否被联邦或州法律禁止拥有枪支。
联邦调查局和ATF的发言人没有及时回复发表评论的请求。
2020年3月，联邦调查局进行了大约370万次背景调查，比任何一个月都多因为NICS系统是在1998年由早期颁布的布雷迪手枪暴力预防法案建立的。人们对这种新型冠状病毒的兴趣增加，主要是因为担心这种新型冠状病毒的传播会引发社会动荡或种族主义攻击。
虽然背景调查与枪支销售没有一一对应的关系——调查可以在过程中的其他点进行，例如当一个人获得携带许可证时——但其他分析表明，3月份创纪录的调查次数确实代表了销售的大幅飙升。
小武器分析与预测公司的尤尔根·布劳尔估计，这些数字相当于上个月销售了250多万支枪，主要是由手枪销售推动的。
行业贸易组织国家射击运动基金会警告零售商，在全国范围内对枪支的兴趣激增之际，“延期状态的支票积压量很大，而且还在不断增加”。
联邦法律规定，未解决的NICS问题的最短期限为三天，之后，个体经销商可以决定在没有明确绿灯的情况下继续销售。
参议员们写道:“全国各地的地方执法机构和法院突然面临人手短缺和资源挑战，这可能会妨碍它们对NICS的请求做出及时回应。”。
根据隶属于同名枪支控制组织的吉福兹法律中心的说法，至少有七个州进一步要求在进行调查前先开绿灯，或者将等待时间从三天延长到10到60天。
其他一些州要求购买者获得许可证，许可证本身会引发背景调查，等待时间可能很长，从几周到六个月不等。
2020年3月24日，加州卡尔弗城，一棵棕榈树站在马丁·雷丁公司枪支商店旁边，冠状病毒大流行仍在继续。洛杉矶
尽管有这些保障措施，参议员们警告说，“即使没有公共卫生紧急情况，执法部门也不总是有足够的时间来准确确定预售人是否是被禁止的买家。”
新泽西州是代表枪支经销商对所有销售进行NICS交易的13个州之一新闻周刊“由于政府机构为应对COVID-19大流行而采取的非常预防措施的实施”，处理请求可能会有延迟。然而，新泽西州允许一个月的时间，然后才能签发购买许可证。
参议员们要求联邦调查局向国会提供数据，说明在过去的三个月里，有多少背景调查超过了三天的支持，包括估计在紧急时期完成背景调查需要多长时间。
根据美国联邦调查局的数据，2018年90%的NICS检查在几分钟内得出结果，而其余的则需要对执法记录进行额外审查。
2017年，美国联邦调查局将6，004起案件移交给美国交通运输部，在三天的等待期过后，延迟的背景调查最终导致了拒绝。在其中的4864起案件中，联邦调查局认为购买者“很可能”获得了枪支。
司法部监察长2016年的一项审计认定，NICS交易的错误率“非常低”，尽管它观察到，即使是流程中的一个单一故障，“也会产生悲剧性的后果”，并指出前一年南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿伊曼纽尔·AME教堂发生的致命枪击事件。在那次事件中，肇事者Dylann Roof获得了一把枪，因为三天的等待期已经过去。
这封信还呼吁联邦调查局发布紧急指令，以便通过未解决的NICS检查发现的背景信息不会像目前要求的那样在90天后被删除。除此之外，参议员们希望联邦调查局在进行背景调查时，除了目前使用的三个数据库之外，还要例行搜索国家数据交换系统。
N-DEx为刑事司法机构提供了“一个跨辖区共享、搜索、链接和分析信息的在线工具”。它包括逮捕和登记报告、审前调查和监督释放报告等记录。
司法部认为，如果这个数据库包括在常规的NICS搜索中，禁止记录将在2015年屋顶的背景调查中被确认。
除了马基、布卢门撒尔和墨菲之外，其他签署人还包括参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦、科里·布克、卡马拉·哈里斯、鲍勃·梅嫩德斯、谢罗德·布朗、克里斯·库恩、克里斯·范·霍伦、麦克·班尼、艾米·克洛布查尔、帕蒂·默里、汤姆·卡尔珀、柯尔斯顿·吉利布兰德和马齐·希诺。
U.S. SENATORS WARN SURGE IN GUN SALES COULD OVERWHELM FBI'S ABILITY TO SCREEN DOMESTIC ABUSERS, PROHIBITED BUYERS
A worker restocks AR-15 guns at Davidson Defense in Orem, Utah on March 20, 2020. Gun stores in the U.S. are reporting a surge in sales of firearms as coronavirus fears trigger personal safety concerns.
One day after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported an unprecedented surge in background checks for prospective gun buyers, a coalition of 16 Democratic U.S. senators is expressing concerns about guns ending up in the hands of prohibited purchasers.
In a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Regina Lombardo, the senators warn that a dramatic increase in gun sales could "overwhelm" the FBI's capacity to screen out domestic abusers, among those prohibited from owning firearms.
The letter, the result of an effort led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Connecticut Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, was obtained by Newsweek.
The FBI is chiefly responsible for conducting background checks through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which searches three FBI-maintained databases to produce records indicating whether a prospective gun owner is prohibited by federal or state law from possessing a firearm.
Spokespersons for the FBI and ATF did not return requests for comment in time for publication.
In March 2020, the FBI conducted around 3.7 million of these background checks, more than in any single month since the NICS system was established in 1998 by the earlier-enacted Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. The rise in interest is largely attributed to fears of social unrest or racist attacks due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
While background checks do not have a one-on-one correlation with gun sales—checks can be performed at other points in the process, such as when an individual obtains a carry permit—other analyses indicate that this record number of checks in March was indeed representative of a massive spike in sales.
Jurgen Brauer of the firm Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting estimated that these numbers translate into over 2.5 million guns sold last month, largely driven by sales of handguns.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation, an industry trade group, has warned retailers that "there is a large and growing backlog of checks in delay status" amid the nationwide surge in interest in firearms.
Federal law sets a minimum period of just three days for unresolved NICS queries, after which individual dealers can decide to proceed with a sale absent an explicit green light.
"Local law enforcement agencies and courts across the country suddenly face staffing shortages and resource challenges that may prevent them from providing timely responses to NICS requests," the senators write.
According to the Giffords Law Center, which is affiliated with the identically named gun-control group, at least seven states go further to require a green light before proceeding or to extend the waiting period from three days to anywhere between 10 and 60 days.
A handful of other states require purchasers to obtain permits, which themselves trigger background checks that can have long waiting periods, ranging from a couple weeks to six months.
A palm tree stands next to the Martin B. Retting, Inc. guns store as the coronavirus pandemic continues on March 24, 2020, in Culver City, California. L.A.
Notwithstanding these safeguards, the senators warn that "even absent a public health emergency, law enforcement does not always have enough time to accurately determine pre-sale whether someone is a prohibited buyer."
The State Police in New Jersey—one of 13 states that mediate NICS transactions on behalf of gun dealers for all sales—told Newsweek that there may be a delay in processing requests "due to the implementation of the extraordinary precautionary measures being taken across government agencies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic." However, New Jersey allows for a month-long period before a purchase permit can be issued.
The senators are requesting that the FBI provide data to Congress on how many background checks during the last three months have surpassed the three-day backstop, including an estimate for how long it will take to complete background checks during the emergency period.
According to FBI data, 90 percent of NICS checks in 2018 yielded a result within minutes, while the rest required an additional review of the law enforcement records.
In 2017, the FBI referred 6,004 cases to the ATF where a delayed background check ultimately resulted in a denial after the three-day waiting period had already passed. In 4,864 of these cases, the FBI believes the purchaser "probably acquired" the gun anyway.
An audit from the Justice Department's inspector general in 2016 determined that the error rate for NICS transactions was "exceedingly low," though it observed that even a single breakdown in the process "can have tragic consequences," noting the fatal shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, the year prior. In that incident, the perpetrator, Dylann Roof, was able to acquire a gun because the three-day waiting period had lapsed.
The letter also calls on the FBI to issue an emergency directive so that background information discovered through unresolved NICS checks isn't deleted after 90 days, as is currently required. Beyond this, the senators want the FBI to routinely search the National Data Exchange (N-DEx) System, in addition to the three currently used databases, when conducting background checks.
N-DEx provides criminal justice agencies with "an online tool for sharing, searching, linking, and analyzing information across jurisdictional boundaries." It includes records such as arrest and booking reports, pretrial investigations and supervised release reports.
The Justice Department believes that, were this database included in routine NICS searches, prohibiting records would have been identified during Roof's background check in 2015.
In addition to Markey, Blumenthal and Murphy, the other signatories include Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bob Menendez, Sherrod Brown, Chris Coons, Chris Van Hollen, Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Patty Murray, Tom Carper, Kirsten Gillibrand and Mazie Hirono.
