Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee NICS Hearing

June 21, 2000

I thank the Chairman for holding this hearing today on ways to improve the National Instant Criminal Check System (NICS). I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today. In particular, I would like to thank Max Schleuter, Director of the Vermont Crime Information Center, for coming to Washington to testify about the way Vermont handles its NICS checks and his suggestions for improvements to the NICS.

I also want to acknowledge my old friend, Senator Bob Dole, the former Majority Leader. It is good to see you again.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1994 established the NICS and required federal firearm licensees to conduct a background check on the purchaser of any firearm sale after November 30, 1998. In its first 18 months of operation, the NICS has been a highly effective system for keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and children. Having processed more than 10 million inquiries during this time, the NICS has ensured the timely transfer of firearms to law-abiding citizens, while denying transfers to more than 179,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons.

That is a remarkable record in preventing crime and protecting public safety. I fully support the NICS as a way to prevent criminals and juveniles from purchasing firearms without forcing a waiting period on law-abiding citizens who want to purchase firearms. I believe, however, that the NICS system can and should be improved.

The first way to improve the NICS is to make sure it is up and running. For 66 hours – from the afternoon of May 11 to the morning of May 14, 2000 – the NICS system lost all service. For nearly three days, law-abiding citizens could not purchase firearms because the FBI could not conduct any background checks. That is unacceptable. I look forward to hearing the testimony of David Loesch, Assistant Director in Charge at the Criminal Justice Information Services Division of the FBI to explain to us why this NICS system failure happened and how to prevent any future service failures.

I also believe Congress should do more to support states who want to conduct their own background checks. The NICS is mandated by federal law, but many states are picking up the tab for conducting effective background checks. Since more comprehensive criminal history records are currently available at the state and local levels in many states than at the federal level, about half of the states have elected to serve as points of contact (POCs) to access the NICS.

A state POC is a state agency that agrees to conduct Brady background checks, including NICS checks, on prospective gun buyers. In states that have agreed to serve as POCs, federal firearm licensees contact the state POC for a Brady background check rather than contacting the Federal Bureau of Investigation. These POC background checks review more records of people in prohibited categories, such as people who have been involuntarily committed to mental institutions or are under domestic violence restraining orders.

Indeed, in my home state of Vermont, for example, which serves as a POC, approximately 28 percent of all denials of prohibited persons seeking firearm purchases are based on state charges which would not have been available for review at the FBI's criminal record repository.

Currently, these 15 states serve as a full POCs for NICS: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. Another 11 states serve as partial POCs for NICS by performing checks for handgun purchases while the FBI processes checks for long gun purchases: Iowa, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Indiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.

In fact, of the 8,621,000 background checks conducted last year, 4,538,000 were handled by the FBI and 4,083,000 – almost half – were handled by state POCs. So while some states relied on the FBI to conduct Brady background checks and paid nothing, the states that elected to conduct more effective background checks paid the full cost of them. That is unfair to states that are doing the right thing.

Today, I am introducing the NICS Partnership Act of 2000 to remedy this inequity. I am pleased that the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and Senators Kohl and Schumer on the committee, are original cosponsors of the bill. Our bipartisan legislation would authorize $150 million for the next three years for the Department of Justice to reimburse states for their reasonable and necessary costs for serving as a POCs.

Effective Brady background checks are the responsibility of the federal government under federal law. As a result, it is only fair for Congress to reimburse states their reasonable costs needed to conduct effective Brady background checks. I look forward to the prompt consideration of our bipartisan legislation.

Another way to improve the NICS is to close the gun show loophole. On May 20, 1999, by a vote of 73-25, the Senate passed a juvenile justice bill that contained a modest measure to crack down on illegal gun sales at gun shows by requiring NICS checks of prospective buyers. Under current law, gun show dealers do not have to abide by the same background checks as federally licensed firearms dealers. Since the Lautenberg amendment was included in the juvenile justice bill, the Republican leadership has simply refused to convene a conference committee meeting on the broader juvenile justice legislation. We should be moving on it now, not waiting for the next tragic shooting to occur.

I look forward to working with the Chairman and other members of the committee to improve the NICS on a bipartisan basis, and I want to thank our witnesses for appearing today.