NJ NICS

[Black Ops 1]

I asked my FFL to do my NICS check 4 days ago so I could pick up my pistol. As of today, the NICS check is still not back and he told me that the wait was now 2 to 4 days. He also told me that tonight was his wife's birthday and tomorrow was Valentine's day so I could not get my pistol until Friday. My problem is that I'm leaving for Florida first thing Friday morning. How long is a NICS check good for until it expires.

[Steve_G 51]

30 days

[RubberBullets 65]

I cant believe that nics is still backed up. Are there any guns left to buy?

[remixer 1,645]

its still backed up. i just got back approvals we ran on the 8th

[NJSlick 0]

Sent my NICS in Thursday last week got approved Monday...3 business days seems normal

[Kingsoverqueens 10]

Valentines day?

 

How cute.

[Black Ops 1]

Valentines day?

 

How cute.

Come to think of it, I still need to get something for my wife...

[silverado427 10,730]

Valentines day?

 

How cute.

LMAO.

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Come to think of it, I still need to get something for my wife...

 

Remember, you only forget once and that's that, luckily, I have never forgotten an important date, thanks to my electronic calendar and reminders. Lol

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[wweng 1]

faxed in wed.afternoon ,approved mon. morning

[djg0770 481]

Sent my NICS in Thursday last week got approved Monday...3 business days seems normal

 

Wasn't too long ago that 15 minutes seemed normal.

[reloaderguy 30]

My nics was sent in last Friday and approved Monday.

[Black Ops 1]

Got it approved yesterday (3 days wait). I'm now waiting for more permits so I can get the other pistols I ordered. I spent a year in Texas about 15 years ago - it seems like a different country compared to NJ.

[Xchange1980 0]

Im willing to bet it will never go back to what is used to be and that 2-4 days will be the norm from here on out, there is no logical reason why it is still that backed up

[djg0770 481]

Im willing to bet it will never go back to what is used to be and that 2-4 days will be the norm from here on out, there is no logical reason why it is still that backed up

 

I unfortunately feel that you are correct. Who will shine the spotlight of truth on this though? Where's our Jason Matera?

[Xchange1980 0]

to me NJ is in the midst of a very slow and precisely calculated process to make it more and more extremely hard to obtain a firearm here. I mean look at most local PD's DO NOT hit the 30 day mark no where close there are very few who do for FID cards & P2P' & NICS is going to stay delayed and who knows maybe over time it will get even slower as it has been it will NEVER switch to the National NICS which comes back in under a minute.

[Tunaman 549]

to me NJ is in the midst of a very slow and precisely calculated process to make it more and more extremely hard to obtain a firearm here. I mean look at most local PD's DO NOT hit the 30 day mark no where close there are very few who do for FID cards & P2P' & NICS is going to stay delayed and who knows maybe over time it will get even slower as it has been it will NEVER switch to the National NICS which comes back in under a minute.

When I had a change of address last year for my duplicate NJFID, it took only a few days and the Detective delivered it to my house! I have 2 p2p handgun permits in right now and my references got letters in the mail the NEXT day. These guys are moving if you ask me. Go Rutherford PD!

[NJCK 5]

FFLs may chime in, but I am certain they are not processing NICS in order they are received. It's more like however the pile gets picked up off the floor after it overflows the fax machine... My FFL has gotten ones faxed in 2 minutes apart returned with 3 days difference between them.

[Xchange1980 0]

When I had a change of address last year for my duplicate NJFID, it took only a few days and the Detective delivered it to my house! I have 2 p2p handgun permits in right now and my references got letters in the mail the NEXT day. These guys are moving if you ask me. Go Rutherford PD!

I agree and said they are a handful of PD's who do respond in a timely manner but its the bigger picture

[Tunaman 549]

I agree and said they are a handful of PD's who do respond in a timely manner but its the bigger picture

I agree. The bigger picture seems very slow. I was told by Manny at the Bullet hole yesterday that most of the state mental health records were lost in the storm. He said he cant get any inventory either. Manufarturers have nothing. He told me to figure about April for a permit! God I hope not.

[nuclearheli 40]

I agree. The bigger picture seems very slow. I was told by Manny at the Bullet hole yesterday that most of the state mental health records were lost in the storm.

 

That's a bunch of crap. The Federal and State records checked by NICS are all computerized and are the only ones checked. The storm had nothing to do with it.

 

He said he cant get any inventory either. Manufarturers have nothing. He told me to figure about April for a permit! God I hope not.

 

That is 100% accurate. I am fortunate enough to have dealer associations with four major wholesale firearms distributors. NONE of them have a single thing worth selling in their inventory. I not only do transfers but I sell firearms also and I currently have no less than 15 firearms on my "Wish List's" in various places with no predicted delivery date at all. I have other relationships and recently ordered a barrel for a 10/22 from one of my direct suppliers and they quoted a delivery of July.

 

The whole system has gone nuts. There is so much panic buying and price gouging going on right now you have to be crazy to even think of buying anything if you can find it. Somebody I know sold a Sig 516 Patrol NJ Compliant for $3,800. Sig's web site has that firearm listed for $1,666 MSRP and six months ago you could have easily purchased that firearm for $1300 or even less.

[Cixelsid 1]

Funny but a friend of mine in PA gets his NICS done in 2 minutes over the phone. It's all computerized. National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

[RubberBullets 65]

I wonder if there are any official word from NJSP. Are they blaming increased volume.. And can we opra request the validity of their statements regarding statistical volume

[NJWarrior 0]

I was wondering about the wait time others are experiencing. I purchased a gun on Saturday and I still have not heard back.

[djg0770 481]

I wonder if there are any official word from NJSP. Are they blaming increased volume.. And can we opra request the validity of their statements regarding statistical volume

 

You can OPRA request any and everything. Whether you get it is another question.

[nuclearheli 40]

Funny but a friend of mine in PA gets his NICS done in 2 minutes over the phone. It's all computerized. National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Sorry for the length of this post but you may find this information will answer some questions for NJ NICS.

 

The Federal NICS system is in fact completely computerized and allows FFL's to run their background checks through a secure web site. Also, for those of us using a standardized FFL software package that has been adopted by ATF, you can perform NICS checks directly through the computer, easy. HOWEVER, The federal government allowed states to decide if they wanted to handle their background checks through the FBI directly or become a Point Of Contact (POC) state. A POC state is one that takes over the NICS program from the FBI and adds their own criteria to the check. According to the FBI, state background checks are more thorough than those performed by the FBI because states can access their independent criminal history databases in addition to databases maintained by NICS, even though states are encouraged to provide their own criminal history databases to NICS.

 

So in NJ we are a POC of course. What does that mean? First it means that we must pay $15 for each NIC check which goes to NJ. Congress already funded NICS with your tax dollars so it's free on the federal level. Not on the state level. It also means that a NIC check in NJ includes not only federal background checks but also state checks as well. That takes a bit of explanation also. The government passed another dumb ass law that "encourages" states to report their criminal docket, convictions etc., to the national system. "Encourages", not requires. So of course like most states NJ said no, we will do it ourselves, be a POC and charge NJ residents for something their tax dollars already funded.

 

There are 13 states including NJ and NY that are POC's, States that conduct NICS checks for all firearms purchases and/or for alternate permits for handguns and long guns

There are 8 states that are "partial participants". States that perform checks for handgun permits, while the FBI performs NICS checks for long gun purchases

There are 4 states that are also "partial participants" however they are: States that perform NICS checks for handgun purchases, while the FBI performs NICS checks for long gun purchases:

Then there are 35 other states where the FBI performs NICS checks on both handguns and long guns for

 

Ok, so what about PA. PA is also a POC but their have their act together better than NJ. First price, in PA I believe the price is $2 for a background check, but don't quote me on that. Also PA has a fully computerized system, hence the speed in which NICS checks are done.

 

Why so slow in NJ? Because NJ is still in the technology stone ages. It took a lot of digging to understand the system, here is what I found out. Over the years since NICS was required NJ charged ($15) for every background check. If you read the laws NJ does NOT permit batch background checks. Why? Because the way that NJ charged in the past for NICS checks was by using the 900 phone line system. That's right along with the horoscopes, porn lines and joke of the day lines. High tech right? They made several attempts and probably paid an unlawful amount of money to consultants to automate the system but still nothing. On December 24th 2012 the very LAST phone carrier, the old MCI now Verizon, officially discontinued billing for 900 numbers. That was not unexpected, 900 customers were notified a long time ago that the service of billing for those numbers would end. The only place that you can get 900 numbers from now is Canada. Was NJ prepared for this, not quite. Their first causality was the phone in background checks. They had no way to charge their customers so they shut down service until the system that was going to be in place for the 24 was actually implemented. It is STILL shut down today.

 

They now publish two numbers both toll free. The first one is for phone in service which should have been operational by December 24th. but from what I hear is still not operational and no telling when it is going to be turned back on. The second was a fax number. They contracted with a company called Champion Communications. They are nice people but you get the feeling they are not Verizon. Perhaps a one or two person small business operation. So as an FFL you must first contact them and establish your account which requires you to have a credit card on file with them. Then you have to list all the fax numbers you will be faxing checks from so they can authorize them with the state NICS. Only then can you fax in requests. If you fax in a request and get disconnected or the fax doesn't go through you have to call them to get the charge removed from your credit card. To make matters worse, those of us who are in the 21 century and use services like myFax.com and others now have to install a dedicated phone line for a fax machine because you must have the caller ID of the fax match the registered phone numbers listed on your authorization. So now most of my record automation goes out the window again.

 

I am not making any of this up. So now for why does it take so long?

 

Because every single individual fax, EVEN if there are three or more faxes for the same individual, is individually hand processed by one of a very small group of state workers, with restricted working hours, which is the reason why you could not purchase a firearm on Sunday when the phone system was working (FBI NICS is 365 days/year until 2 AM), Also, a NICs check is valid for 30 days but there is no system in place to look up a NICS check for someone that just had one done. They also made the NICS check valid for 30 days but you cannot buy another handgun until the 31st day so even if they were capable of looking up an existing check, it still would be invalid. So keep this in mind, if you purchase a handgun today and get a NICS check, then a shot gun next week, you need another NICS check all over again.

 

Couple all of this crap with a historical record breaking number of purchases and you have a broken system that takes days to obtain approval using data that for most of the rest of the United States is instantaneously available. It's an interesting paradox, we pay for the privilege of poor service while others pay nothing for excellent service. Doesn't this work the other way around in the rest of the world?

 

Thanks for putting up with my diatribe.

[RubberBullets 65]

So the state knew this was going to happen...let it happen and instead of upgrading to the 21st century as most responsible businesses would do, they make it even more archaic than before? That sounds about right for NJ. Their solution to their continued failure? Raise taxes for money wasted.

[so_dank 0]

Bought my g20sf from Ramsey in saucasauna. Nics went in last thursday at 10.00 a.m. my call came this Wednesday at 5 p.m. so 6 days for me. They have an xd and a colt in stock the only two guns worth buying in the case...

[nuclearheli 40]

So the state knew this was going to happen...let it happen and instead of upgrading to the 21st century as most responsible businesses would do, they make it even more archaic than before? That sounds about right for NJ. Their solution to their continued failure? Raise taxes for money wasted.

 

It's worse than that. Their "New Upgrade" is a 20th century upgrade at best. Remember, they will eventually return to verbal approvals but all this effort and there is still no electronic access to the NICS check system, and in this state there probably never will be. It's my understanding that when the phone service is finally implemented you, as an FFL will first have to call in and provide your billing information, again. Then you will be issued a PIN number for future billings.

[nuclearheli 40]

Bought my g20sf from Ramsey in saucasauna. Nics went in last thursday at 10.00 a.m. my call came this Wednesday at 5 p.m. so 6 days for me. They have an xd and a colt in stock the only two guns worth buying in the case...

 

First are you sure it actually went in on Thursday. Many larger retail outlets send bunches in at a time and they may not have sent them out until late in the day or even the next morning. Next, the NICS system starts counting days following the day of submission, so if it really went in on Thursday they didn't start their clock until Friday. Sunday is out as well.

 

But remember there is no limit to the amount of time they can take with their initial evaluation. There is however a three day limit on the amount of time they can issue a final status after they issue a pending status. That is three days. If after three days starting from the day after they issue the pending you have not heard back from them, it is an automatic approval. But most FFL's won't issue based on the three day expiration. I for one just don't trust the system to actually work all the time. And if I turn over the firearm and it is a denial I could be looking at a DOC jumpsuit.