Background Check Rant

[quikdraw67]

I had to wait almost 3 hours yesterday waiting for my background check to clear.

Now. PA has "PICS", which is the same as NICS but run by PA State employees, which doesn't fill me with much confidence. These are the same folks that run the DMV, and the State Store system. If you are from PA, you know exactly what I mean.

My LGS owner warned me of the extended wait time. Basically if you're a frequent flier like I am, you get flagged. Back in the 90's my late brother and I were buying a lot of guns (mostly S,&W revolvers), and we always got an operator instead of going through the instant check.

A guy ahead of me purchased a rifle, and he went right through. When mine was entered, it went to "pending ", which is the 2020 version of getting an operator.

So I had time to kill. I drove around, went to another LGS, looked at some new cars, and picked up lunch to bring home for myself and Mrs. QD67.

I stopped at the LGS before I headed home. Nope. Still pending. So I figured I'd have to come back Monday to pick up my gun.

I just walked out the door and the owner's daughter came running out after me and said the check just came back.

Here's why I'm pissed off

1st, I have no criminal record. My only criminal act was driving 70 in a 55mph on I-80 in 1989. Paid the ticket, the end of criminal activity.

2nd, I have had a CCW permit since 1993. BITD if you didn't have a CCW in PA, you had to wait 3 days until picking up a pistol. If you had one, it came home with you that day. Rifles and shotguns came home with you whether you had a CCW or not.

3rd, I was trading a pistol for a rifle. I thought the libs were ok with hunting rifles (that's sarcasm right there. Guns bad, tofu good).

Anyway, not happy. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania trusts me to carry a lethal weapon. But God forbid that I want to trade one for another without going through a time wasting unnecessary background check. If I committed a crime bad enough to revoke my CCW permit, the Wayne County Sheriff's Department would be knocking on my door.

Long story short, PICS sucks.

 

[JH1951]

In feel for you, brother. The bright spot is that you are in Wayne county where the environment is considerably more pleasant than many other locations in the Commonwealth. (I spent a fair amount of my youth where Wayne, Pike and Monroe seem to meet.)

 

[Muss Muggins]

Couple things in play here. If you have ever been fingerprinted for any reason, you have an FBI number, the same as a crook, which takes a little extra time to check. Second, if there's a fella out there with a name or SSN similar to yours and his DOB is close to yours, that takes extra time to check, and that could occur at any time. You may have sailed thru for years, but the new computer don't know that . . .

 

[UncleEd]

Quickdraw,

You could by some terrible twist
of fate end up in a state with
3-day or 10-day waiting periods.

 

[Rpg]

The wait times here in Colorado have been 3 to 4 days (before the election). Usually, it takes 10 minutes. Our CBI has been swamped.

Having a CCW is no help in Colorado: all buyers are treated to the long wait. In effect, you wait in line with everyone else.

Once you pass the check, there's no wait to take the gun home.

 

[625-7]

In feel for you, brother. The bright spot is that you are in Wayne county where the environment is considerably more pleasant than many other locations in the Commonwealth. (I spent a fair amount of my youth where Wayne, Pike and Monroe seem to meet.)

Yup, Sheriff's office is first rate as far as carry permits go

 

[sigp220.45]

Its running two days here in sunny Colorado. All of ours go through CBI and it doesn't matter if you've got a concealed weapons permit, LEOSA, or a badge on your chest. In normal times it usually takes 20-30 minutes, but these ain't normal times.

I did the background here Wednesday for a gun at a big box an hour from my house. They called me first thing Saturday, so it was probably in Friday afternoon.

 

[PPS1980]

Sorry about your delay. Georgia still allows us to walk out with the weapon if we have a GWL (the background check on it is FAR more complete than any 4473 NICS check). It's part of why I won't buy from Big Box stores, they will not honor that allowance under GA law (by and large) so you have to wait if it gets flagged, the system is down, it's Tuesday.... Another reason to stick with local gun stores or person-to-person purchases and trades.

 

[quikdraw67]

Quickdraw,

You could by some terrible twist
of fate end up in a state with
3-day or 10-day waiting periods.

God forbid.

PA has been the anomaly of all the Northeastern States

Very gun friendly.

If that ever changes it's time to sell the homestead and head south/west.

I had family in Connecticut. I know what happened there concerning gun rights.

Nope.

 

[mocha001]

In ca you get your background check wait 10 days .then if the state run background check has cleared you get your gun.Since the virus and civil unrest it can take up to 15 to 20 days. In ca we pride ourselves in giving unemployment insurance to prisoners ( close to a billion dollars ) but we can't have instant background checks. Only on the left coast

 

[SPEEDGUNNER]

FFL in West Chester PA?

 

[quikdraw67]

FFL in West Chester PA?

Nope.

Not Wayne, PA.

Wayne County, most Northeast County of the Commonwealth.

Honesdale is the County Seat.

 

[BC38]

Quickdraw,

You could by some terrible twist
of fate end up in a state with
3-day or 10-day waiting periods.

Yup, or end up with one passing into law in your own state. Until we had one pass here a couple of years ago, EVERY time I had a NICS check called in it came back approved in minutes. Never a hold, never a denial, always a speedy approval.

Now every semi-auto rifle and every handgun purchase is a 2 week wait. Even though the new law says they get UP TO 10 business days to complete the BGC, and that the FFL is allowed to complete the transfer at the end of that time, even without an approval.

Now none of them get approved in less than 10 business days and most transfers get completed after the 10 business days waiting for the BGC have expired. Which means that EVERY purchase is a 14 calendar-day wait. Effectively a two week waiting period.

 

[Sistema1927]

Sure glad that we have background checks. They guarantee that the bad buys will never have weapons. [/sarcasm]

 

[GypsmJim]

We live in NY. OK, OK, say what you want, but we (my law-abiding family) have never had a problem. I go into the LGS, pick out a rifle, the guy does a computer NICS and I'm out the door in 15 minutes. If its a handgun, I'm still out in 15 minutes, drive 30 minutes to the county office, get it registered in 10 minutes and back to the LGS. All in all, an hour and a half. No waiting period.

Recently my son made a business trip to a very gun friendly state. (I won't say which one because I don't want to offend anyone.) After his meeting he went to a bar with some of his coworkers and naturally the discussion went to guns. When he heard how easy it was to buy an "assault rifle" or a pistol with a 30 round mag he said maybe he should move down there. They said no way we don't want you yankees down here, yada, yada, yada.

So, say what you will. The grass may look greener but it never usually is...

 

[LVSteve]

Wow, in more normal times I got through the Nevada system in two hours or less even when I was a non-immigrant alien with a hunting license.

 

[Rob613]

We live in NY. OK, OK, say what you want, but we (my law-abiding family) have never had a problem. I go into the LGS, pick out a rifle, the guy does a computer NICS and I'm out the door in 15 minutes. If its a handgun, I'm still out in 15 minutes, drive 30 minutes to the county office, get it registered in 10 minutes and back to the LGS. All in all, an hour and a half. No waiting period.

NY is interesting as it's county by county for handguns, but we should not have to list every handgun on our permit.

My county lets me always keep a coupon on me. Bought a Glock last Sunday, NICS took 30 seconds...paid and out the door with my Glock. Mailed in the amendment form on Monday, they will send a new coupon back for my next purchase along with my new permit with the Glock on it.

Counties downstate can take weeks or months for the amendment to be approved.

 

[Golphin]

Here in Florida I always had mine come back in just a couple of minutes until the people starting buying all the guns. The last two I bought took over a hour and neither were on a weekend where you would think more guns were being bought. I think it is a combo of less workers and more background checks being rum bogging down the system.

 

[cherrypointmarine]

Yeah , you read the paper and we are setting records down here for BGC's and concealed weapon permits . About the only time I have a wait is if there's a gun show going on . I consider myself lucky living here after hearing some of these stories . What gives states the right to enact gun laws when the 2nd amendment lays out the nation's law ?

 

[pittpa]

PA DOT and Fine Wine/Good Spirits have been very good to deal with in the last year or so. I paid off a car in mid- March right after the Covid Shut down and had the title in 10 days.
The big new DOT office south of Pittsburgh in Bridgeville was very efficient when I went there for my Real I.D.
TSA found 5 rounds of 38 special Gold Dots in my carry-on in 2013. (Yeah, that's another story.) I left them behind and went on my way. I wrote a thank you note to TSA, because having those in Costa Rica at the airport on my way back could have been a problem.
No hiccups on any gun purchases since then. I guess I'm just lucky.