NICS Database

[Mac]

In the thread about the NICS denial for a purchase, "ohiobuckeye" comments:

"Also, no information is allowed to remain in the NICS system...by law, so every time your name is called in for a new purchase, you are starting from zero...just the same as a person buying his first gun."

From my experience as a consultant with government agencies, I often wonder if the agencies, NICS in this case, actually follow the law. It would be very easy for someone to retain that information in a separate file. Given my confidence with the present administration or any of the bureaucrats for that matter, I wouldn't be surprised if that information was on a computer someplace.
Mac

[Kid Sopris]

Well If you pass, the information is destroyed. HOWEVER if you are delayed or denied, They must hold onto the information until such time as the appeal process has been exhausted or expired. IT also may be left open, if you Ask for or request that a reference number be assigned to your name and when calling back to NICS, give them the Reference number to allow the investigator to open the disposition case file.

[StandingWolf]

...I wouldn't be surprised if that information was on a computer someplace.

I'd be surprised if it weren't kept in violation of the law. From what I know of the Fast & Furious operation, there is no adult supervision.

[msheak]

If I have learned anything from my Navy Intell/ computer geek son; you put something into a computer, even if you delete it; even if you delete cookies , it is still there, in some form, just takes someone smart enough to find it. Why should we "assume" the federal data base computer is wipe completly clean?

[gvf]

In the thread about the NICS denial for a purchase, "ohiobuckeye" comments:

"Also, no information is allowed to remain in the NICS system...by law, so every time your name is called in for a new purchase, you are starting from zero...just the same as a person buying his first gun."

From my experience as a consultant with government agencies, I often wonder if the agencies, NICS in this case, actually follow the law. It would be very easy for someone to retain that information in a separate file. Given my confidence with the present administration or any of the bureaucrats for that matter: I wouldn't be surprised if that information was on a computer someplace.
Mac

I don't think that would make much sense for them on top of being illegal. The information they use is already on record. Far as I know, NICS compiles info from various official sources based on criteria related to firearms: court records, police agencies etc. No reason to keep it, it's already kept.

[kenhwind]

In Florida; the Florida Dept. of Law Emforcement (FDLE) does the background check not NCIS. Also in FL it is against the law to compile the data. I will admit that I have more faith in the State of FL to abide by the law than the Federales'.

[Pendennis]

If data are stored on a magnetic disk, they are semi-permanent. The typical "erase" only erases the pointers in the data which identify those data as unique. Only what's referred to as a low level format, do the bits get reset to zero, thus destroying the data.

Threre are programs and systems out there designed specifically to restore data.

[majdad93]

I've wondered this myself. It really came to the forefront just this past weekend. I had correspondence with a gun shop in NE Ohio concerning a purchase I made there in November 1991. The store had computerized data on file in their "Bound Book" and were kind enough to furnish me a duplicate receipt of sorts proving that I had purchased this weapon at their store. The gentlman also informed me that the actual paper document that I had signed back then, as well as countless others, had long since been forwarded to the BATFE when the business incorporated some years back. Who among us in the Forum would think that the Feds don't have this info on file somewhere?

Valid points have been raised here, especially considering this Administration's bumbling, stumbling, downright incompetence and utter nakedness in the "Fast & Furious" business. Who here does not think the whole "Fast and Furious" caper was an undercover attempt to pin Mexico's crime problem squarely on law-abiding American gun owners? Also, just witness the President's "Signing Statement" this past weekend wherein he stated that he will not be "bound" by numerous provisions of legislation passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law under his own hand. Yeah...... Hail to the Chief.

majdad93

[Mac]

It would also be interesting to know who or what agency, if any, verifies that the law is being met. My experience with other government organizations is that there is little, if any, oversight.
Mac

[moosedog]

"My experience with other government organizations is that there is little, if any, oversight."

Mac, you are very kind in your evaluation. After seeing "Fast & Furious", I would not put ANYTHING past the current administration.

There was a time, when bureau heads were kept on from administration to administration, ie Hoover and the FBI. Now, every election, the president appoints a new director. Bad JU JU in my book.