NICS Denial Appeals Keep Rolling In, But No One Is Processing Them

As gun sales in America continue to rise, the FBI has added about 70 employees to assist with the ever-growing number of background checks. Unfortunately, they were all transferred from the agency’s pool of appeals examiners—leaving no one to process the appeals of those who were erroneously denied their ability to purchase a firearm. 

In 2014, out of the 90,895 federal NICS checks resulting in a denial, 4,411 were later appealed and overturned. Worse, according to USA Today, the “temporary” reassignment of appeals examiners has created a backlog of 7,100 denial appeals.

Without appeals examiners, there’s no recourse for those mistakenly turned down. Moreover, If President Obama gets his way with regards to “universal” background checks, all transactions would have to pass an NICS check, resulting in innocent people being stripped of their Second Amendment rights indefinitely—a clear violation of the Constitution’s guarantee that individuals cannot be deprived of liberty without due process.