National Instant Check System

The Brady Act was challenged in court, but only the part requiring state officials to carry out the back ound checks was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1997 in Printz v. U.S., on the grounds that Congress lacked the power to commandeer the services of local officials. This decision would have little impact because the Brady Act already had a provision that after five years (in 1998) the waiting period would be replaced by a computerized national instant check system that would verify a gun purchaser in much the same way that stores validate credit cards. 

National Instant Check System (NICS) A nationwide database of criminal and certain mental health records, used to allow gun dealers to verify that a purchaser can legally obtain a firearm. 

Montgomery, Jill. National Instant Criminal Bac%round Checks System. USA Bulletin, vol. 50, January 2002, pp. 50-51. Describes the national instant check system (NICS) developed to implement the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. Montgomery explains how the databases are searched and what efforts are being made to speed up the system and to deal with the fact that the databases remain incomplete. Between November 1998 and the end of 2001, NICS had processed more than 23 million transactions and denied more than 190,000 sales to felons or other ineligible persons. 

National Instant Check System (NICS) exemption codes ... 

To provide for a waiting period before the purchase of a handgun, and for the establishment of a national instant criminal back ound check system to be contacted by firearms dealers before the transfer of any firearm. 

A) before the completion of the transfer, the licensee contacts the national instant criminal background check system established under section 103 of that Act ... 

If the national instant criminal background check system notifies the licensee that the information available to the system does not demonstrate that the receipt of a firearm by such other person would violate subsection (g) or (n) or State law, and the licensee transfers a firearm to such other person, the licensee shall include in the record of the transfer the... 

Neither a local government nor an employee of the Federal Government or of any State or local government, responsible for providing information to the national instant criminal background check system shall be liable in an action at law for damages—... 

SEC. 103. NATIONAL INSTANT CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECK SYSTEM. 

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