FBI gun seizure orders from people who fail background checks hit historic rates
The FBI has been issuing more seizure orders for guns sold to suspected prohibited buyers than at any time in the history of the federal firearm background check system, according to the most recent data compiled by the bureau.
More than 6,300 such referrals were transmitted to the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives in 2020 to take back weapons from buyers when background checks later determined they may have been ineligible because of criminal records, mental health histories, disqualifying military service records and other bans.
Another 5,200 directives were issued in 2021, adding to the largest two-year total by far since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System began publishing data in 1998.
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Seizure orders are issued when analysts later conclude that buyers likely should have been barred.
The FBI noted that the retrieval orders represent a fraction of the millions of gun checks processed in 2020 and 2021. The 2022 data is not yet available.
“Historically, the NICS Section has experienced an increase in firearm retrieval referrals as increases in overall background check volume occurs,” the FBI said in response to questions from USA TODAY.
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But analysts suggested that the unusual spike in seizure orders is due in part to the aftershocks of the coronavirus pandemic. Not only did gun sales skyrocket during the height of the pandemic – a record 39.6 million background checks were initiated in 2020 – placing increased pressure on the background check system.
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David Chipman, a former ATF official who helped oversee the firearm retrieval program during his time at the agency, also pointed to COVID’s transformation of the workplace as almost certainly contributing to the troubling increase in retrieval orders.
“I would have been surprised if there wasn’t a spike,” said Chipman, the Biden administration’s first nominee to lead the ATF. “COVID made the process more difficult.”
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A ‘public safety risk’
The recent spike in retrieval orders represent the largest totals since 2000 when 5,056 were issued.
While the numbers accounted for a small percentage of the 8.5 million transactions vetted by the NICS system that year, the FBI described the potential “public safety risk” in stark detail at that time.
The 2000 annual NICS’ operations report recounted an incident in which a Cleveland-area dealer proceeded with a gun sale to a gang member when the required background investigation was not completed within the three-day period.
The day after the sale, an associate of the buyer, also a gang member, used the gun to rob an East Cleveland restaurant, according to the FBI report.
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Chipman, who also had served as a senior policy adviser for the Giffords Law Center which advocates for more gun restrictions, said the risks to law enforcement have never abated and are “baked in” to a background check system that favors gun buyers and dealers.
The three-business-day deadline for background check examiners does not account for the crushing volume of transactions that increases almost every year, he said.
“This is a security system set up in such a way as not to inconvenience gun buyers and sellers,” Chipman said. “There is no other security system that I’m aware of that is set up in this way. Think of it: the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) was set up to prevent another 9/11. But the nature of that job requires putting people at some inconvenience.”
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But the National Rifle Association, long the most influential force in the powerful gun-rights lobby, said adequate safeguards already exist and that the retrieval orders “illustrate that existing law has always had safeguards if law enforcement authorities are willing to use them.”
“The three-day safety valve is essential to preserving the constitutional rights of law abiding Americans,” NRA spokesperson Amy Hunter said. “Without it, good citizens could be penalized merely because of mistakes or gaps in records. It ensures that the burden of proof remains on the government, where it belongs, when depriving someone of the exercise of their constitutional right to obtain a firearm.”
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