Whoops
WBIR:
The FBI says its computer system that quickly screens gun buyers’ backgrounds for criminal activity has crashed several times over the past two days.
An FBI spokesman says a technical glitch had the system on the blink for up to a half-hour yesterday and today, potentially allowing buyers to purchase firearms without being screened. He says the problem is being worked on and called it “a performance issue that we’ve never encountered before.”
Tennessee has its own. Any locals have any problems?
November 28th, 2006 at 11:49 am
In what reality would this happen?
November 28th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
NICS checks from Florida were reportedly down most of Sunday. The dealer I bought a gun from at the Orlando show told me I could wait until it came back up or pick the gun up at his shop Monday, which is what I did. Had I bought from an out-of-area dealer who subscribed to the same business principles I would have had to drive to his shop to pick it up or had it processed through a local FFL.
Orange County (Orlando) enforces a 3 day wait ordinance on handguns which is voided if you have a CWP; but, having a CWP which allows “cash and carry” isn’t worth much if NICS is down, which also affected long gun sales. I’ll have to check FL statutes and see what the recourse is for buyers when NICS checks cannot be run; in any event, were I in dire need of a self protection firearm I don’t think I’d want to be leafing through the rule book and trying to convince a dealer to release my gun to me.
This should be a wakeup call to anyone who thinks they might ever need a gun – buy it well ahead of potential need. Today would be good, for example.
November 29th, 2006 at 11:19 am
Of course, if it really is “a performance issue that we’ve never encountered before.”, that would mean that they’ve never experienced the volume of requests before that they’re getting now and the system just can’t handle it.
What a wonderful day it is when the government can’t keep up with all the people that want to buy guns. I’m hoping it’s lots of Christmas presents, but it probably has more to do with the election.