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Biden’s FBI Boasts About its Young Adult Waiting Period

Monday, April 1, 2024

Biden’s FBI Boasts About its Young Adult Waiting Period

When it comes to law-abiding adults ages 18-20, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) should be renamed the Never Instant Criminal Background Check System. An article posted to the FBI’s website on March 25 shows how the agency uses the ill-named Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 (BSCA) to impose a waiting period on young adult gun buyers.

Under the BSCA, when a Federal Firearms Licensee (gun dealer or FFL) contacts NICS to run a background check on a purchaser under the age of 21, NICS is required to contact additional state and local government agencies in the prospective purchaser’s jurisdiction before approving the firearm transfer. This includes the state agency responsible for juvenile criminal justice records, the state custodian of mental health records, and the “local law enforcement agency of the jurisdiction in which the person resides.”

These queries take time. Further, unlike NICS, these state and local agencies are not necessarily designed or equipped to handle these types of requests in an instant or even timely fashion. In fact, as made clear in the U.S. Supreme Court case Printz v. U.S. (1997), the federal government cannot compel the states to participate in its gun control regime at all. Therefore, no law-abiding 18-20-year-old adult experiences an instant background check.

Prior to the enactment of the BSCA, in cases where the NICS system flagged an individual as possibly having a prohibiting record, the FBI had 3-business days to determine whether the person was in fact prohibited before the firearm transfer was allowed to proceed. In the case of young adults ages 18-20, the BSCA demands that NICS extend the 3-business day check period to 10 business days (two full weeks) if “cause exists to further investigate a possibly disqualifying juvenile record.” The requisite “cause” to prompt the 10-business day waiting period is not defined by the legislation.

NRA-ILA warned gun owners and policymakers back in 2022 that the BSCA eliminated instant background checks for young adults and would be used by the Biden administration to create a waiting period regime. Despite the obvious implications of the bill, proponents of the BSCA claimed the gun control measure “does not create any mandatory waiting periods.”

According to the FBI, since the BSCA took effect over 200,000 young adults have been encumbered by the never-instant checks. The agency stated that the average waiting period for a law-abiding young adult to be cleared by the never-instant check is “about 4 days.”

Recall, the new under-21 background check procedure sends NICS on an open-ended fishing expedition for potentially prohibiting records – even when they don’t exist. Therefore, perversely, the system is quicker to deny gun purchasers - “about 2 days” – than to allow a lawful firearm transaction to proceed.

Aside from the waiting period, the BSCA background check scheme poses another threat to gun owners.

Federal law (18 USC 922) prohibits firearm possession by a person who “has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” Note the term “convicted.” Under a proper interpretation of federal law, many juvenile adjudications may not meet the criteria for a federal firearms prohibition.

As explained on a government website that describes the features of the juvenile justice system, the “process operates according to the premise that youth are fundamentally different from adults, both in terms of level of responsibility and potential for rehabilitation.” The juvenile system is typically more informal and less focused on procedural due process than the adult criminal justice system. Most states do not consider adjudications of delinquency in the same category as criminal convictions.

Of course, juvenile misbehavior varies in degrees. In most states, very serious behavior – homicides or assaults resulting in serious physical injury, for example – can lead to a juvenile being prosecuted in the adult criminal justice system, with all the usual consequences that implies.

Demanding federal bureaucrats delve into juvenile records that aren’t necessarily prohibiting under a proper interpretation of 18 USC 922 is an invitation to improperly delay or deny an individual’s Second Amendment rights.

As members of the political community, young adults ages 18-20 should have their right to keep and bear arms respected in the same manner as older adults. NRA-ILA will continue to work towards this goal.

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North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

Canada’s Gun Grab: Amnesty Expiration Approaches as Top Officials Sow Confusion

News  

Monday, September 22, 2025

Canada’s Gun Grab: Amnesty Expiration Approaches as Top Officials Sow Confusion

Canada’s Liberal government has consistently and misleadingly used “buyback” to describe the 2020 mandatory “assault weapon” confiscation law, in an attempt to make the scheme appear less hostile to property rights and Canada’s responsible gun ...

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

Gun Controllers Rage at Everytown Over “Firearms Training,” Demand “Abstinence”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Gun Controllers Rage at Everytown Over “Firearms Training,” Demand “Abstinence”

A revealing article in USA Today last week reported that Everytown for Gun Safety’s new “firearms training” program, Train SMART, “met stiff opposition from [Everytown’s] own members and longtime supporters.” 

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Open Carry Comes to Florida

News  

Monday, September 22, 2025

Open Carry Comes to Florida

On September 10, the First District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida struck down the Sunshine State’s prohibition on open carry as a violation of the Second Amendment in the case McDaniel v. Florida. ...

California Loves Gun Control, Loathes Crime Control

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

California Loves Gun Control, Loathes Crime Control

California is always adding to its mountain of gun control laws aimed at disarming law-abiding citizens.

Pennsylvania: Another Gun Bill Fails on House Floor

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

Pennsylvania: Another Gun Bill Fails on House Floor

On Tuesday, another anti-gun bill was defeated on the House floor, failing to receive approval by a 101-102 vote.    

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NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.