Computer Failure Halts Gun Sales Fbi Background Check System Fails For Second Time In Week

Thu., May 18, 2000

By Carol MacPherson carolm@spokesman.com

Guns sales were once again halted on Wednesday as the FBI’s background check system went on the fritz just days after it was fixed.

Last week, the system went down on Thursday afternoon and was not working again until Sunday.

A call to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS, confirmed that the system was down Wednesday afternoon. No explanation was given for the problem, or any prediction of when it would be fixed. FBI spokespeople in Washington, D.C., were unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Gun sales were affected nationwide when the system went down last week. The FBI blamed the system breakdown on an internal database problem. The computer system was not hacked, nor was the system deliberately shut down to coincide with the Million Mom March, which rallied for gun control, an FBI spokesman said Friday.

Area gun shop owners said the system goes down frequently, but usually not for days at a time. Bob Bennett, owner of Bob’s Gun Shop in Coeur d’Alene, estimated he lost about $3,500 in business between Thursday and Saturday. Like many shop owners, Bennett says his biggest sales days are Fridays and Saturdays. The system was back up about 1 p.m. Sunday, but Bennett’s shop isn’t open on Sundays.

On Wednesday morning, Bennett said, a father and son came in to purchase handguns. It was not until he ran the ID check that he learned the system was down again. Unlike last week, no one from NICS called to warn shopkeepers that the system was down.

When the customers learned they could not make their purchase Wednesday, Bennett said they told him they would buy their guns from newspaper classified ads.

Bennett said he lost between $700 and $1,000 in sales Wednesday.

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