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How DHS Failure to Comply With Background Check System Requirements Threatens US Security

© AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, FileIn this file photo, guns line the walls of the firearms reference collection at the Washington Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Washington on Friday, Sept. 28, 2007
In this file photo, guns line the walls of the firearms reference collection at the Washington Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Washington on Friday, Sept. 28, 2007 - Sputnik International, 1920, 28.12.2022
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has failed to consistently comply with the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) requirements, thus jeopardizing the country's security, as per Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) revealed earlier this month that the federal agency had on multiple occasions failed to respond promptly or sufficiently to FBI NICS inquiries and update missing information on dispositions from July 2019 to June 2021. The FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) rely on the NICS data to find out whether a person is eligible to purchase a firearm.
"Specifically, DHS components took more than 3 days to respond or were unresponsive to 126 (59 percent) of 214 NICS inquiries," the document read.
The OIG explained that if FBI NICS examiners do not receive disposition data to deny or approve a firearm sale within three business days, licensed sellers may transfer firearms at their discretion. A disposition is part of the criminal history information that discloses the nature and outcome of criminal proceedings.
"Therefore, DHS not sending disposition data to NICS and its delayed and insufficient responses to FBI inquiries create a risk of wrongful firearms transfers," the report emphasized.
The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was established in accordance with the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (Brady Act), which required the creation of a national name check system for federal firearms licensees (FFL). NICS became operational in 1998.
A plaque at the entrance to the The Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 13, 2022 - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.12.2022
Analysis
Why Sandy Hook-Style Massacres Set to Repeat Over and Over Again in US
There are 10 possible prohibiting categories for firearms eligibility. These categories include, in particular, persons convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year; fugitives from justice; unlawful users of a controlled substance; illegal aliens and aliens admitted on a non-immigrant visa; persons dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces; persons who renounced their US citizenship; and some others.
According to the OIG's report, there are five operational components of DHS which create prohibition records: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Protective Service (FPS), United States Coast Guard (Coast Guard), and United States Secret Service (Secret Service).
In 2019, the FBI referred 2,989 firearm retrievals to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to the document. At the same time, when NICS examiners do not receive the necessary information to complete a delayed transaction, it remains unresolved and in NICS for 88 days, as per the report.
NICS regulations stipulate that information about an inquiry resulting in a firearms receipt or transfer should be destroyed no later than 90 days. Thus, after 88 days, the FBI should purge the data to comply with federal law. All in all, in 2019, the bureau purged over 200,000 unresolved transactions, according to the OIG's report.
The issue is by no means a trifle matter: in 2018, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General raised the alarm over mass shootings caused by inaccurate and untimely NICS data.
"The report detailed the US Air Force’s failure to send a service member’s prohibiting criminal history information to the DOJ," wrote the DHS OIG. "The missing information allowed the service member to legally purchase multiple firearms through an FFL. The firearms purchaser then used those firearms to carry out a mass shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, in Sutherland Springs, TX, killing 26 people."
Following the FBI's complaints with regard to DHS non-compliance with NICS requirements and missing disposition records, the OIG obtained comprehensive data showing all charges attributed to the DHS as of January 31, 2022.
"Our testing confirmed that, cumulatively, DHS has more than 6.4 million charges missing dispositions in NICS. The dates of those charges range from 1925 to 2022," the report said.
US President Joe Biden waves with his son Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony  - Sputnik International, 1920, 02.12.2022
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Schrödinger's Files: Secret Service Has Hunter Biden Gun Docs They Denied Possessing
The controversy involving DHS agents' apparent irresponsibility is not limited by the DHS OIG's recent findings. Earlier, American conservative media busted the US Secret Service for what appeared to be an attempt to hide Hunter Biden's illegal ownership of a gun.
In 2018, US President Joe Biden's son, notorious for his drug addiction problems, bought a gun while denying on the background check form that he was "an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance." After that, representatives of the Secret Service approached the firearms shop owner and demanded the paperwork connected with the transaction, according to media reports.
The gun shop owner refused to comply, suspecting that the Secret Service officers wanted to hide Hunter’s ownership of the firearm. Intentional misrepresentation of information while buying firearms is a criminal offense according to US law. Yet the younger Biden was not charged.
A secret service agent is stationed outside the funeral of Ivana Trump, Wednesday, July 20, 2022, in New York - Sputnik International, 1920, 24.07.2022
Hunter Biden Records: Does US Secret Service Have Something to Hide?
Meanwhile, violent crimes involving firearms are on the rise in the US. The Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit organization that tracks gun violence incidents across the US, found that 2022 had become one of the highest years for mass shootings in the country. According to the organization, there were at least 607 mass shootings through November 22, 2022, with at least 3,179 people having been shot, resulting in 637 deaths and over 2,500 people wounded.
For comparison's sake, the number of mass shootings in 2021 and 2020 amounted to 690 and 610 cases, respectively. The entity and the US mainstream media admitted that mass shootings in 2022 have become part of a three-year uptick that started in 2020. In addition to that, in October 2022, the FBI reported a 4.3% increase in homicides between 2020 and 2021.
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