9/1/2023 0 Comments Lesson 8.6 anyway you slice it![]() ![]() Because it deletes those unfinished background checks, it’s impossible to know how many would have been denied - and how many of those people were able to buy a gun anyway.Īnd even if the numbers are relatively small, they can have tragic consequences. The FBI does not finish most gun background checks that take longer than three business days. Again, this only includes background checks that are subject to the three-business-day rule.īut the ATF data is just the part of the iceberg that’s above the water. In an average year, it deletes about 202,000. In the first nine months of 2020, the FBI deleted 316,912 unfinished background checks - 3.4 percent of all the checks it processed. To make sure it doesn’t violate that policy, the bureau actually deletes unfinished background checks on day 88 just to be safe. But after 90 days, the bureau’s regulations require it to stop work and delete the background check from its computers. That number doesn’t include background checks for things like concealed-carry permits or explosives licenses, which aren’t subject to the three-business-day rule. In 2020, there were 535,786 such checks, according to FBI data. In an average year, almost 275,000 background checks take longer than three business days. But ones that do don’t have to tell the FBI about it. Many, including large chains like Walmart, choose not to. After three business days, the dealer can sell the gun anyway. The FBI responds to most gun background checks with an immediate “yes” or “no.” But sometimes, it has to delay the check to do more research because its records are incomplete. Three numbers highlight the size of the problem we’re dealing with: (1) how many background checks take longer than three business days (2) how many checks the FBI never completes and (3) how many people who can’t legally own a gun are able to buy one anyway because of those delays. ![]() Still, the background check numbers for 2020 are staggering. A single background check can also represent multiple gun sales. It’s also important to remember that the number of background checks isn’t the same as the number of guns sold - many are also run when people apply for gun permits, for example, or when states check on the status of gun permit holders. Those numbers only include gun background checks run by the FBI, so they don’t count the 20 states that process some or all background checks themselves. The share of background checks the FBI never completes has ticked up slowly since 2014, the first year on record, when it processed 8,256,688 checks and didn’t complete 172,879, or just under 2.1 percent.īut by 2019, the bureau was failing to complete about 2.5 percent of the background checks it processed, and it didn’t finish almost 3.4 percent in the first nine months of 2020. And, at this point, it’s unclear when the problem is going to get better. The FBI data shows how the background check system has struggled to keep up. Gun sales have surged since April 2020, thanks, at least in part, to the pandemic, protests last summer for racial justice and the election of President Biden in November. In other words, it’s impossible to know how many guns were sold to people in 2020 who couldn’t legally own them because those background checks were never completed. And that number doesn’t include October, November and December - usually the busiest months for gun sales, when 3.4 million background checks were opened last year. Perhaps most alarming, the FBI never finished over 316,000 background checks in the first nine months of 2020 alone - far more than in any other year on record. 1 But last year, the bureau processed 12,761,328 background checks, according to FBI data obtained by FiveThirtyEight through a public records request. ![]() ![]() In recent years, the FBI - which manages the system that vets gun buyers - processed an average of 8.6 million gun background checks annually, according to historical data analyzed by FiveThirtyEight. America’s gun background check system, designed to keep weapons out of the hands of people who might use them in crimes, has struggled to keep up with record firearms sales over the past year - even as violent crime has risen dramatically in many U.S. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |