A letter sent last Friday by this correspondent to House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer asks the committee to have Attorney General Merrick Garland and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray explain where the FBI is delegated the authority to allow the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) to be used to process New York State ammunition transfers.
The inquiry is being made because the FBI’s “Firearms Checks (NICS)” page, the DOJ’s NICS rules for FFLs and POCs (Point of Contact states), “Public Law 110–180, An Act To improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System”, and the “Fix NICS Act” address firearm transfers. There is no mention of “ammunition.”
Can NICS be used for purposes for which it is not federally authorized?
To find out, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI in March for documents and records to clarify authority and determine decision-making (and decision-makers) authorizing the use of NICS for New York State ammunition background checks.
In June, instead of producing what was asked for, the FBI returned copies of two nonresponsive Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections anyone can pull off the internet. Neither even remotely address the scope of the request.
“It’s clear that the FBI has no intention of responding, which makes fair another question,” I observed. “Why?”
The final straw came this Tuesday, when my attorney Stephen Stamboulieh, received a response from DOJ’s Administrative Appeals Staff Chief Christina Troiani in which she told him, “After carefully considering your appeal, I am affirming the FBI’s action on your client’s request… I have determined that the FBI’s response was correct and that it conducted an adequate, reasonable search for responsive records subject to the FOIA.”
To paraphrase: We’re not going to tell you. Deal with it.
I could file a lawsuit, and that option remains open, but it would not only require money and effort to fund and pursue, and there is every indication we would be stonewalled with no end in sight. Another choice would be to give it to the people whose job it is to make sure government agencies operate within the law, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
Unlike FOIA requests, which can ask for records, the committee can ask questions and has subpoena power to cut through to the chase and get them answered. It also doesn’t hurt that, per the National Rifle Association, Chairman James Comer “a solid record of leadership in support of the Second Amendment,” so he should be especially interested in making sure no agency is assigning itself infringement powers.
And to be clear: Like fighting the bump stock ban wasn’t about bump stocks, this isn’t about ammunition. This is about self-delegating power and brings to mind nothing so much as the famous painting of Napoleon crowning himself.
My letter to Rep. Comer, which went out today via return receipt mail, is embedded below. I begin by introducing myself to him so that he can see I’ve worked with Oversight before, on Operation Fast and Furious, and the information I gave them then panned out into one of the committee’s major areas of focus for years.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
“It also doesn’t hurt that, per the National Rifle Association, Chairman James Comer “a solid record of leadership in support of the Second Amendment,” so he should be especially interested in making sure no agency is assigning itself infringement powers.”
You know who supported and advocated for NICS? The NRA.
You know who supported and advocated for FixNICS which expanded the massively failed background check system ensuring even more people will be denied their rights? That’s right….the NRA.
I wouldn’t put too much stock into them claiming someone is pro-2A. They’re not even pro-2A.
FOIA is simple an admission on the part of our federal government that Congress has been neutered by the administrative state and either can not or will not use its oversight powers to truly oversee the bureaucracy. Not my idea but the idea of at least one Nobel Prize winning economist, James Buchanan who detailed this very problem in his Public Choice Theory. There used to be a few agencies who actually took Congressional Inquiries seriously and I know that for a fact having served as a base inspector while on active duty in the Marine Corps. But that ethic… Read more »
And when it is all over if it is determined that the DOJ/FBI cannot do background checks for ammo, will Oregoneistan use its own state powers to enforce it’s own rule that ammo will require a background check like it is trying to do with measure 114 requiring a check to get a license to buy a gun? Will states like Kommiefornia have to stop background checks for ammo? Will they be forced to let their serfs buy ammo via the mail again or will their own rules override the federal government like they are doing with Bruen via back… Read more »
New York State as California are the testing grounds for democrats looking to redefine the law. They say if it happens there it will soon happen in democratic run states. The FBI has shown that it is working for one political party in the twenty first century. There are 438 agencies in the US gov with 73 law enforcement agencies that are known to be armed. Current data shows 137,000 employed armed agents of the federal government in service this day. This does not include the military or those working abroad The true number might never be known. When searching… Read more »
The real problem is entrenched bureaucrats who cannot be held accountable for anything they do.
Shire the light of truth on the government and watch the roaches run
check should not include information about the gun purchased just if person is a prohibited person ,could be used for apartment rentals,car rentals