According to Firearm Chronicles
Millions of people bought guns in the month of March. In fact, almost a million more bought them in March than in February in one of the biggest spikes in gun purchases ever. Further, many of them were new gun owners, people who had never purchased a firearm before in their lives. It was a good month for the gun industry, to say the least.
However, it was such a surge that the NICS had trouble keeping up. In fact, delays were and still are quite common.
As per law, though, delays can only keep someone from taking possession of their gun for so long. Unfortunately, for some gun-grabbing senators, that delay isn’t nearly long enough.
One day after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported an unprecedented surge in background checks for prospective gun buyers, a coalition of 16 Democratic U.S. senators is expressing concerns about guns ending up in the hands of prohibited purchasers.
In a letter Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Regina Lombardo, the senators warn that a dramatic increase in gun sales could “overwhelm” the FBI’s capacity to screen out domestic abusers, among those prohibited from owning firearms.
The letter, the result of an effort led by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey and Connecticut Senators Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy, was obtained by Newsweek.
The FBI is chiefly responsible for conducting background checks through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which searches three FBI-maintained databases to produce records indicating whether a prospective gun owner is prohibited by federal or state law from possessing a firearm. …
In addition to Markey, Blumenthal and Murphy, the other signatories include Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Bob Menendez, Sherrod Brown, Chris Coons, Chris Van Hollen, Michael Bennet, Amy Klobuchar, Patty Murray, Tom Carper, Kirsten Gillibrand and Mazie Hirono.