NICS Processing Fee

Colorado has a state system in addition to the NICS check. Last year they added a $10 fee to use the system, and have the option of adjusting it up (or down:rolleyes:) depending on how well it funds the system that was created expressly stating it would never bill a resident to use.
 
This isn't the same as paying a dealer $20 or $35 to do a background check on a gun you've bought on Gunbroker and had sent there. Ordinarily, the dealer considers the cost (in time) of the NICS check as being part of his overhead in selling the gun.

Absent a sign clearly stating that NICS denials would be assessed a service fee of $X, I seriously doubt I would be willing to pay his fee if I were denied on a purchase. :p:p:p
 
Actually it is becoming quite common. Many felons go in to just see if they can get past the system or if they are still prohibited. They know their status but just wasting the time of the FFL for a free check. I have only heard of the charge for failed checks. No charge for delayed or approved.
 
Some fee more than $5.00 should be charged by the dealer. Don't forget, someone had to spend time with him on the 4473, etc. $20 + $5.00 would be fair.
 
I've seen stores that charge as much as 20% of the cost of the firearm for a denial. Sure, that's high, but they advertise it up front and it serves its purpose, which is to keep people with criminal records from pretending to buy a gun in order to "test" the NICS background check system.

After all, how many people are denied by NICS for no reason? It rarely ever happens. The vast majority of the time, if someone is denied, they know why.

And those stores I mentioned that charge a 10% - 20% "restocking fee" for a denial will offer to hold the gun at no cost while the customer appeals their denial to NICS.
 
After all, how many people are denied by NICS for no reason?
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Actually, quite a few. I get a few folks who are not surprised, but most of the denials I see are (eventually) turned over through appeal.

One of the problems with the "NICS has stopped X number of violent psychopaths" mentality is that those figures count a very high number of false positives.
 
I'm getting confused. if there is a NICS denial that means the gun is still owned by the dealer and no money has changed hands why would there be a restocking fee? heck the gun never left the shelf and nothing has changed in the dealers book.
 
steveno said:
I'm getting confused. if there is a NICS denial that means the gun is still owned by the dealer and no money has changed hands why would there be a restocking fee? heck the gun never left the shelf and nothing has changed in the dealers book.
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Call it whatever you want ("denial fee", "restocking fee", etc.), but it's a fee to discourage a person with a questionable criminal history from pretending to buy a gun in order to test the NICS system to see if they can pass a background check.

Think about it; if a store doesn't charge any fee for a denial, it means anyone can just walk in and get a background check any time, completely wasting the store's time in the process. That's obviously less of a problem in some places and more of a problem in others, but enough stores have had the problem that a lot of them enacted the fee.
 
Tom Servo said:
Theohazard said:
After all, how many people are denied by NICS for no reason?
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Actually, quite a few. I get a few folks who are not surprised, but most of the denials I see are (eventually) turned over through appeal.
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I'll admit I have a lot less time under my belt working at an LGS than you do, but I rarely ever encountered a denial that I honestly believed was for no reason. Almost always the person either mentioned something in their history, or when they acted all innocent I was sure they were lying. But in most of the cases where someone seemed genuinely surprised to be denied, they appealed successfully and we held the gun for them at no charge during their appeal process.

But maybe more of the people who I thought were lying were actually telling the truth. Or maybe two years isn't long enough for me to get a large enough sampling of denials. Who knows.
 
Conditional non-approvals are quite common, but virtually all become approvals after the additional 3 day wait that Florida allows for this circumstance.
However, out right non approvals are fairly rare at our shop, maybe 6 or so per year and as a pawn shop we conduct a lot of background checks.
 
if there is a NICS denial that means the gun is still owned by the dealer and no money has changed hands why would there be a restocking fee?
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Because my time and efforts have value. A mechanic charges me to check that rattly noise, even if I don't have him fix it. A doctor charges me to stick out my tongue and say "ahh."

So, if someone wants to waste our energy and payroll by using us as a background-check service, they should be expected to pay something for it.
 
Theohazard ....After all, how many people are denied by NICS for no reason?
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0%

FBI NICS is required by Federal law to give the reason for a "Denied" response.
The request must be made in writing or via the FBI NICS website. Federal law prohibits giving this information over the phone.
 
^^^ Sorry if I was unclear; I meant "no known reason", as in the customer thinks he has a spotless criminal record and honestly can't understand why he was denied by NICS.
 
I'm not sure where one would go for such stats. I have run into it once. An acquaintance of mine won a firearm and when he tried to claim it, his NICS was denied. He was able to get things straightened out but it took him a couple of months, as I recall.

I don't know what reason was given for the initial denial, but the fact that he was able to get things straightened out so fast and the fact that he holds a security clearance strongly suggests that the denial was a due to some sort of mistake. i.e. He was, in effect, denied for no reason.
 
Theohazard ^^^ Sorry if I was unclear; I meant "no known reason", as in the customer thinks he has a spotless criminal record and honestly can't understand why he was denied by NICS.
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I could see that if the buyer had never bought a gun from a dealer. Remember, you can have a spotless criminal record and still be a prohibited person.


I've had six denied transactions in the last six years.
According to the buyers: (remember NICS does not tell the dealer the reason for the denial)
Three were because the buyers had outstanding DWI cases that had not gone to trial. All three fought their tickets and won. Once their case was over they notified the FBI.

One was on deferred adjudication for a drug crime. (funny, neither ATF or FBI cared one bit that he lied on the 4473) I charged him a $265 storage fee because he lied to me about the date he submitted his NICS appeal.

One buyer told me it was because his father was prohibited. Buyer was a "Jr".

The only one who did not bother to appeal, didn't look surprised at his denial and had me ship his AR lower to a buyer in another state.
 
JohnKSa I'm not sure where one would go for such stats.
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ATF and the FBI can drown you in stats.


I don't know what reason was given for the initial denial, but the fact that he was able to get things straightened out so fast and the fact that he holds a security clearance strongly suggests that the denial was a due to some sort of mistake. i.e. He was, in effect, denied for no reason.
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A "security clearance" has nothing to do with FBI NICS checks. I have Federal agents get a delay and they have security clearances that let them stand next to the President.......with a gun. ;)

There is ALWAYS a reason for a delay or denial. Most common reason is the buyer has a name identical to or similar to a prohibited person. Other reasons are inaccurate records that city/county/states provided the FBI.
 
A "security clearance" has nothing to do with FBI NICS checks. I have Federal agents get a delay and they have security clearances that let them stand next to the President.......with a gun.
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In practice it may not have anything to do with whether one passes a NICS or not, but it SHOULD have a lot to do with it. If a person can get a security clearance then, generally speaking, they should pass the NICS since the same basic things are checked by both.

If a person with a clearance is denied, then it's almost certainly an invalid denial as it was in the case of my acquaintance. If the denial had been valid, he would not have been able to get it resolved in a few weeks.
There is ALWAYS a reason for a delay or denial. Most common reason is the buyer has a name identical to or similar to a prohibited person. Other reasons are inaccurate records that city/county/states provided the FBI.
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I guess that's one way to look at it. There's always a reason but sometimes the reason isn't a valid one.
 
JohnKSa
Quote:
A "security clearance" has nothing to do with FBI NICS checks. I have Federal agents get a delay and they have security clearances that let them stand next to the President.......with a gun.
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In practice it may not have anything to do with whether one passes a NICS or not, but it SHOULD have a lot to do with it. If a person can get a security clearance then, generally speaking, they should pass the NICS since the same basic things are checked by both.
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The reason a security clearance doesn't mean squat to the FBI has to do with the way NICS searches the various databases. NICS doesn't know that the buyer has a clearance and it's doubtful that HE'S OKAY!..HE HAS A CLEARANCE!!! appears on the monitor when the NICS rep runs the name and birthdate. As the FBI NICS website explains, the buyers name is checked against several Federal databases as well as information from state databases. If no prohibiting information is returned the buyer gets a "Proceed". If multiple records are returned the customer service rep forwards the call to an FBI Legal Documents Examiner for further review. Often the review takes less than a minute, but sometimes NICS needs additional time to research (such as state databases) and a "Delay" is given.

I doubt a Federal "security clearance" background takes the same amount of time that a NICS check does. And as Federal law requires NICS to delete each days "Proceed" transactions they can't store that information on buyers unless the buyer asks them to.





If a person with a clearance is denied, then it's almost certainly an invalid denial as it was in the case of my acquaintance. If the denial had been valid, he would not have been able to get it resolved in a few weeks.
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Not always. It would be possible to get denied on a transaction if you were the President of the United States. While a "security clearance" may lead one to think that there are no barriers to acquiring a firearm...........they would be wrong.;)
 
I know several dealers who charge for the NICS check on top of the transfer fee. Don't know why folks go to them...maybe they don't want to do transfers and they feel this may chase customers away.
 
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