RICHMOND, VA –-(Ammoland.com)- A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Gun Owners of America (GOA) shows that the Commonwealth of Virginia incorrectly added over 46,000 of its citizens to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) indices.
According to Virginia State law, anyone who is voluntarily committed to a mental institution loses their gun rights. Only potential buyers who have been committed involuntarily or have been will lose their gun rights federally. Even though they lose their state gun rights, they are not prohibited from buying firearms by federal law.
The Virginia State Police will also run the potential buyer through NICS in addition to a state database. The State Police also can add people prohibited from buying guns by state law to the NICS Indices. If a buyer is not permitted to purchase firearms by state law because of a “voluntarily admission to a mental institution as a per Virginia statute,” then that person’s database entry should be marked as PCA “J.” If a buyer is prohibited by federal law for being “adjudicated as a mental defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution” then that person’s database entry should be marked as PCA “D.”
Virginia is a single point of contact state. Being a single point of contact state means that federally licensed firearms dealers in the Commonwealth contact the Virginia State Police to run a background check on a potential buyer. If a state is not a single point contact state, the dealer will contact the FBI to run the buyer through NICS.
GOA filed a FOIA request with the FBI to get the results of the agency’s NICS audits of the Commonwealth of Virginia. All single point of contact states must submit to NICS audits. Gun Owners o America exclusively shared the results of the FOIA request with AmmoLand News. For full disclosure, the writer of this article is the Virginia State Director for GOA.
The FBI NICS audit showed the Virginia State Police was marking everyone a PCA “D” that has been committed to a mental institution regardless of whether it was voluntarily or involuntarily.
This mistake means that the Virginia State Police incorrectly added over 46,000 residents to the NICS indices as federally prohibited.
If any one of these people who the Virginia State Police marked incorrectly in the NICS indices moved to a different state and tried to buy a firearm, the FBI would deny them. The person would be considered a “prohibited” person and would have to prove that they are not prohibited from purchasing a gun.
The problem centered around the Virginia Police IT System automatically marking everyone submitted to NICS for being committed to a mental institution as a PCA “D.” The system didn’t have the ability to mark residents as PCA “J.”
Someone from the State Police who spoke to AmmoLand News, off the record, claims this mistake was an oversight by the State Police since the developers were never told about the different categories!?
The FBI requested a list of people incorrectly entered into the NICS indices. The Virginia State Police responded to the FBI with the list of the 46,000+ people. The Virginia State Police also requested verification that being committed to a mental institution voluntarily did not prohibit a person from buying a gun federally.
The FOIA doesn’t show if the IT system has been fixed. The Virginia State Police didn’t verify with AmmoLand News that the system had been corrected. An employee of the State Police that isn’t authorized to speak to the media confirmed to AmmoLand News that the system had been fixed.
Gun Owners of America considers the audit results as an example of the dangers of background checks. Even when no malice is intended, people can incorrectly end up on the NICS indices as a prohibited person. As we have seen time and again the majority of NICS denials are false positives.
The FBI didn’t respond if this was an isolated incident or if these mistakes have been made in other states across the Country, like say… New Jersey?
Virginia Incorrectly Adds 46,000 Citizens To FBI’s NICS Prohibited Person List GOA FOIA
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
Another example of incompetent government workers and the piss poor quality of government work.
Long past time to remind them who they work for, clear house, down to the foundations, and rebuild according to Constitutional limits of authority.
We have easily 500,000 extraneous federal employees, if not 1,000,000. We have entire “departments”, agencies and hundreds of programs that directly violate the Constitution by existing. We need to abolish them. Now.
A friend of mine picked up a saying in the U S Navy.
“Measure it with a micrometer.
Mark it with chalk.
Cut it off with an axe.
Close enough for government work.”
you left out overpaid
“incorrectly”…??? How about intentionally…
You should read the article. The VSP asked for proof that voluntary commission to a mental institution does NOT cause someone to lose their right to keep and bear arms.
Shall….not….be….infringed…..
NOT should be in caps!
“The Virginia State Police also requested verification that being committed to a mental institution voluntarily did not prohibit a person from buying a gun federally.”
So the dumb-shit popo doesn’t know the law and THEY are in charge of NICS checks! What could go wrong?
LET’S GO BRANDON
With a tap on your keyboard the inhabitants of a small CITY becomes felons! A prudent way to deal with your enemies, especially your political enemies. Gun control ala Russia or china, or N. Korea? Accident? These days, after what the nation went through ever since Trump and wife announced he would run for president, I would have to say not likely. If I had to bet, I would say done on purpose. I expect there is going to be a law suit with a VERY BIG pay out in the, hopefully near, future. I might remind Virginia politicians to… Read more »
state would never pay but they may loose access to nics
Not only is NICS unconstitutional but it has a false positive rate of over 95%. https://www.gunowners.org/fs08112016/ In 2018, NICS was massively expanded by Republicans. Republican Senator John Cornyn and Republican Representative John Culberson of Texas wrote the bill and it was then passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump via the Consolidated Appropriations Act. In case you forgot, Republicans had complete control of Washington at the time and they used that control to enact more arms laws. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fix_NICS_Act_of_2017?wprov=sfla1 The NRA came up with NICS and still proudly claims this infringement as their own. “The NRA originated the idea… Read more »
So in Virginia, people who feel that they maybe need some mental heath counseling WON’T SEEK HELP because they don’t want to risk losing their guns. Brilliant way to cut down on the number of people that they’ll have to treat in that state I suppose. How about arbitrarily just taking away their drivers licenses too? I mean, if someone is grieving the loss of a loved one and/or having various other emotional / mental issues, just take away their drivers license as soon as they seek help, and be sure that everyone knows this is what will happen forthwith… Read more »
Instead of what they’ve done, They need to add ‘shutting down building of pipelines, leaving US citizens and billions in smal arms vehicles and jet bomber aircraft behind in Afganistan, manufacturing and releasing a deadly virus into the country, and ruining the economy” to the NCIS list of denials too.
In the mean time……. they may want to start boiling some tar, and dropping by a chicken processor for some feathers.
….. and moving your testicle-kicking boots, to the front of the closet.
Anyone want to bet that this was no accident, remember that Anyone who is a DEMONcrat wants guns removed from the people and what better way than to make everyone a prohibited person. How many people are on that list that should not be, the problem is once you are on it then you can never get your name off of that list, you can bet that every person that has not had that experimental vaccine is on that list as well. Keep your eyes open and check every now and then on that list, you just never know.
and when has it been enforced, lots of lies spread to stump trump
One or two maybe as high as ten, fortysix thousand? aaaaaaaaaaa No!
Someone from the State Police who spoke to AmmoLand News, off the record, claims this mistake was an oversight by the State Police since the developers were never told about the different categories!?
So what your saying is, The law doesn’t know the law! Why am I not surprised.
At this point I think it’s a fairly safe bet & not a stretch to say after looking at what’s happening to Australia (being a former penal colony roots & was disarmed by it’s UK Crown owned & managed puppet gubMINT) & now with Austria stirring the coals w/ their recent VaXXed vs. UN-VaXXed divide & conquer Hegelian dialectic that the US will be keeping it’s Guns.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize”
Voltaire
At this point I think it’s a fairly safe bet & not a stretch to say after looking at what’s happening to Australia (being a former penal colony roots & was disarmed by it’s UK Crown owned & managed puppet gubMINT) & now with Austria stirring the coals w/ their recent VaXXed vs. UN-VaXXed divide & conquer lockdown agenda Hegelian dialectic that the US will be keeping it’s Guns. It painfully obvious to any critical independent thinker the Nazi ideology/philosophy/eugenics (crypto AshkeNAZI) never was irradicated just hidden in the obvious occulted secret societies galere’s/coterie’s. Austria to put millions of unvaccinated… Read more »
Seems like every state that decised they don’t trust FBI/NICS to do right on the purchase checks and interposes itself in the middle, creates a new level of problems, not to mention expense, delays, false deny returns, jiggered recoreds at NICS< etc. WHY do the feds allow this? They should talk ONLY to FFL dealers out in the field. Ackshully the entire system shuould be redesigned to allow ANYONE to check whether any given person is “prohibited” when it comes to buying arms. Call or online, enter the critical information about the PUTTIVE BUYER< nothing about WHAT he is buying… Read more »