Background check system still taking forvever

They still haven't sorted out problems with the supposed 'instant' VA background check system. This is fucking bullshit, didn't these problems start a month or two ago?
Go in to buy the first gun I've bought in close to two years and now I'm still here waiting around the next day. Bought the gun and the check started at about 11 am yesterday (wed). Just got off the phone with the store again and as of 3pm today (thurs) it is still delayed. Supposedly they have 7 other people on delay also. Last gun I bought was at a gunshow and it took about an hour to come back.

Fuck this, it is just a defacto waiting period. I'm calling up my reps to see if they can put some pressure on the VSP to unfuck themselves.

Good luck with that. Last Ric gunshow, dealer called in my purchase at 1300, took 1 hour just to get thru, went delayed at 1400, approved at 1030 next day. Damned good thing i'm local, cause i was looking at having to go to Suffolk to pick it up.

That's the only thing I hate about buying a gun in VA, is that damn system they have. The last transfer I had done over there was instant, but it was last summer. When your driving 3hrs and 100mi to the place, with gas as high as it is, you kinda would like to be able to leave with your gun.

I can say that is one good thing about WV, one form, and the federal check.

It's fucking bullshit. My buddy just had to wait like 4 days to buy his first gun frOm bobs in Norfolk. This is infringement of the second amendment through and through.

motherfuckers

Shop closes in 20 minutes so this will make day 2.
VA needs to get rid of their bullshit state check and go with NCIC.

I must be getting lucky as hell cause' I've never waited more than 10 minutes for it to come back. Not sure if it has to do with having a CHP or not, but I've honestly never seen anyone have a problem with having to wait. I'm not saying you ain't being truthful, just wondering if it has to do with different jurisdictions, CHP, background, etc..

Fixed, and yes, it does. IIRC VA's laws are a bit stricter than the federal laws regarding prohibited persons, so those would probably have to be changed first.

CHP has nothing to do with it. I've been delayed everytime since this system went into effect.

I used my CHP as my second ID and put my social on the form.
This was for a handgun. I usually get delayed but it is for an hour or 3 not 31 hours.

Man, this makes me nervous about driving out of town to make a purchase. Like I said I've never had more than a 10 minute wait before, but having said that, it would be my luck to end up with your problem on my next impulse buy.
Kinda puts a damper on selection though since my local shops pretty much suck. Hope you have better luck when you finally get your new acquisition.

I think the biggest part of the problem is VSP has no one to run the damn checks on the other end. They get backed up, and boom, your delayed.....

Just wait until you get hooked into title 2/NFA stuff. The now 6month+ wait will drive you to want to rip the guts out of the .gov and start over.

Well USNDOC I had a stamp come back yesterday and it was I kid you not exactly six months to the day I signed and sent in his paperwork. So you aren't too far behind.

As for the background checks I have a couple of lowers I am thinking of bringing to this show to sell, but I don't know if I will bother with all of the delays.

Same shit different day.

BTW, I finally got a reply to the e-mail I sent to the Governor abou the issue.

What I got back......was a blank e-mail. I shit you not. I just laughed.

Maybe we should try to assemble a bunch of the Virginny forum members and stage a small protest on the lawn of the Governor's mansion. Maybe several dozen or more armed people holding up signs in front of Bob McDonnell's crib will get their attention.

Last time I was in a shop it took about 2 minutes for me to come back clean.

It was the day before Christmas.


Are you guys putting down your SSNs?


ETA: Come to think of it, I don't think it has ever taken more than 8 minutes for me...even at a gunshow.

Are you going to be at the show in Roanoke this weekend? I might bring the hosts by to meet the toys if you bring them. Still not sure if we are going to the show due to some grandparent health issues.

I have always put my social on my 4473 but it never seems to help, when its delayed, its delayed for several hours or days now.

Been just over 48 hours here and still delayed. Used to be 3 hours. I just wish the system let you easily find out WHY I am delayed as I provide SSN and nobody else has my name.

Ok finally was able to pick it up this morning. Been out all day so wasn't able to update.
This is unacceptable.

My first post here, and i know what you mean. I am going shooting tomorrow so yesterday I bought a new tac shotgun as I was getting the paper started I told the guy that I usually get about an hour delay. His response to that was it will be about 4 days now.

What really gets me is that my wife bought her first gun a rock river arms lar-15 she got approved on the spot.

Meh....I get approved right away with either call-in or on-line. I've been approved both ways within the last two weeks in minites.

It makes no sense to me as the same shops will have a stack of forms awaiting approval.

The SP needs to be removed from the process if they can't do a better job. That and dealers need to be given protections so they can sell the weapon after three days without the ATF giving them the hairy eyeball.

Yes, usndoc we'll be there.

Hey guys, sometimes the SSN is the problem, not the solution.

Im not implying that the system isnt totally fucked up, but sometimes you can speed it up by NOT putting your SSN in there. A friend of mine got delayed every time he bought a gun, we couldnt figure it out. Finally he tried it without his SSN and he was approved instantly. Ever since, he has not used his SSN and he gets the approval right away. I use my SSN and I never get delayed. Go figure.

I work in a gun store, and can tell you that whether or not you put your SSN on the form makes no difference. Delays are generally the result of someone with a name similar to yours who is a prohibited person. This will cause your data to be kicked out, where it will be reviewed by a real person to determine if you and the prohibited person are one and the same.

The information that we were given is that about 2/3 of the staff at the Virginia State Police firearms transaction center have been furloughed as a result of budget cuts, and that the resulting backlog of delays is due to this personnel cut. At one point, several weeks ago, they had 4,000 delays waiting to be resolved.

In order to work in a gun store in Virginia, you have to have a background investigation done by the VSP, and be issued a "G Number". I've had all that done, have a CHP, and I still get delayed every time I try to buy a firearm. The reason I get delayed is because there is a guy in California with the same first name, middle initial, and last name as mine, who is a prohibited person. His birth date is different, but that has to be determined by the reviewer in Richmond, hence the delay.

I don't see any hope of speeding things up until the Firearms Transaction Center is fully staffed. And that's not going to happen until the VSP budget permits it. The VSP is not going to cut Trooper jobs if they can help it.

I guess I cant complain I got my approval in 24 hrs

I think my first gun buy was maybe a 10 min to an hour wait. After that I've been delayed evertime for 2 to 4 days. I do put my SS# and I think next time I may leave it off and see if that does anything different. I think they also changed the forms and I started having trouble.

I just got back from The Armory and the guy behind the counter said part of the problem was only TWO people are working on the background checks... yes, for the entire state.

They sold a handgun while I was there, and pretty much told the guy "We'll call you when it clears." Had at least 2 phone calls asking about their weapons (from the one-sided conversation.

Feels like infringement. Guilty until proven innocent.

Got delayed again this weekend at the gun shop I usually frequent. This was Saturday at around 2PM. I knew it would not come back so I left. Waiting on the call to go pick it up. Instant is dead for a lot of folks now.

I feel bad for those being delayed. I was expecting to be delayed this weekend. The guy working my paperwork said there were more delays than normal, but I was GTG in 10 minutes and I don't know if that was because there were a lot of forms ahead of me or if it took the system that long.

The woman bought her first gun Saturday, in an out in 15min

I really feel for you guys. After reading this thread I rode to a gunstore about an hour away this past weekend to purchase a new Daniel Defense M4. I filled out the paperwork, handed it to the lady, and had the approval in less than 5 minutes. I told her about this thread and she stated it has to do with common names, close social security numbers, etc.. I guess its a good thing my last name isn't particularly common .
She did say many people are having to wait days instead of hours but the lucky few who have always been instant approvals are still pretty much going through no problems.
On the flip side, I just got my CHP renewal today which made for a total of 38 days. I can understand a new application but not for a renewal. I guess I'm not blessed in all things.

When you know it's going to take days it seems to go down a little easier than when you are surprised to discover it will take days. When I bought my Glock a month or so ago I was livid. I just walked out of my gun store a half hour ago after having bought a new toy, and the second they said "it's delayed" I just said "OK, see you Friday."

It still sucks, and I find it reprehensible the state is derelict in its commitment to its citizens, but I can't have a heart attack over it. Life is too short.

I don't have a common last name and I present my CHP. I've never been approved the same day. Not that I'm missing much, but it is the reason I don't bother going to gun shows. I know a few others in my boat. We would all go to an occasional show if we could actually buy something. Sucks for us, sucks for the vendors.

It seems stupid to me, that in this day and age, that my social and name can't be crossed and identified in .05 seconds. This isn't the 90's anymore, and I've lost tolerance for this kind of crap.

Over the past 12 months I've been delayed everytime that I've purchased a firearm. This past January at a gun show in Hampton I was delayed again. The dealer had to transfer the gun to a local shop. It took 9 days to be approved. Thats just not effin right!

I agree wholeheartedly! You would think in this digital age that it would be extremely easy to positively identify an individual.
The lady's explanation seemed reasonable but I didn't press for more information. I actually went on a Saturday assuming I would be delayed and get the ball rolling so I could hopefully be shooting the new gun towards the end of this week. When I told them this they said "if you've always been an instant approval you will go right through". They were correct so I assumed they had some sort of idea what they were talking about.
This makes my second purchase in a month and a half, and both took minutes. If the lady was wrong, what is it that makes some go through instantly and some get delayed? Not trying to be combative, I would truly like to know since this shouldn't be happening with law abiding citizens.

Wow! I initiated a transfer last Thursday and it took me 4 days to be approved. I thought I was an outlier, but 9 days is uncalled for! The state should have to pay some sort of penalty to people who have to wait for more than a day. Our rights shouldn't be held hostage to the incompetence and mismanagement of the state bureaucrats!

The thing that gets me is, OK, I get that I was delayed the first time. But after the state confirmed I was OK, why hasn't my F'ing SSN been flagged as OK? Why am I delayed every time? It's a violation of my rights AND a huge waste of their resources to have to do an in-depth check by hand on me every time. Do it once, confirm I'm good, then tag my SSN as OK.

It's not rocket surgery.

Actually getting it right is not as easy as one may assume and largely rests in the name search algorithm. This is what is causing a number of the issues with most individuals. Yes, you have the smith's and Jonses getting delayed but you also have other issues such as

- nicknames
- simple phonetics such as c & k, d & b, when you are on a radio this may not always seem clear
- advanced phonetics such as cc pronounced as ch as in Gucci
- spelling and operator errors, one is not always behind a comfortable desk entering information
- Noise words such as Junior, etc. may not always help
- prefixes such as MacDonalds vs McDonalds

I know why I have issues and thus choose to judiciously make purchases from dealers only when necessary.

Could be worse I suppose, I got delayed for 3 days before being denied. VSP said my 30 days wasn't up, except I have a CHL and used it as my second form of id... The dealer said he'd look into it and call them but I haven't heard from them in days. I guess they're not that Interested in selling guns.

None of which apply if you also provide your SSN, which is a unique identifier. Also, when you provide them with your concealed handgun permit. They could also take your drivers license number, which is unique.

The delays are completely inexcusable.

My dealer put the info in on the computer, and none of those other things apply to my name.

I can see how those variations could be a problem when dealing with radio traffic etc. But we are talking about a legal form that I complete, the data is verified against 2 ID's by the dealer and then submitted. If a warrant is written incorrectly that it matches my name, it should be pretty dang quick to validate against the rest of the data submitted. I could write a better database script that would match or reject in minutes. I bet I could knock down the forms requiring manual checking a great deal even with my limited programming skill.

I am not saying that this is a conspiracy but I know that this is hurting gun show sales at least to a degree because no one wants to wait on a delay. I am seriously considering filing for a UFIN and UPIN if this crap keeps up.

By the way, still delayed, 4 days. If it comes back today, it will probably be right when the shop closes.

Typical. Approval came back right before closing last night. So I will be picking it up today.

All of which aren't an issue. String Distance Algorithms account for all of these problems. You virtually get back instant results on the searches.

After last weeks debacle, I snatched up a 226 in the EE. Picked it up this morning and was approved in seconds!

When will dealers realize that if you tell someone you'll call them back, you should do just that. Oh well, they lost a sale.

I had a friend at work that I just got into shooting. She purchased two different handguns about 40 days apart and was delayed each time. This was last month and last week. The first time she purchased on Saturday and was delayed until Thursday the next week. The guy at the second shop told her she will always be delayed going forward. I've never had much of a problem. Maybe 30 minutes. Lucky me.

I'm still delayed. Just stopped in to buy a spare Glock mag. Bought on Monday, Wed still no joy.

None too happy about it.

Got the call 40 min ago. Surprised it "only" took 2 days. Baby is home with me now.

I guess my luck finally ran out.
Went in yesterday to buy a new Kimber 1911 and low and behold I got delayed for the very first time. I think the gentleman behind the counter expected me to throw a fit, but I just smiled and told him to give me a call when it clears.
So here I sit, in the same boat as many of you guys, anxious to hear my freakin' phone ring

My buddy from Maryland was looking for a 700PSS. Virginia Arms had one at a good price. He drove clear down to Manassas only to be delayed...for a long gun! He was like WTF now I have to wait and drive clear down here again? His savings were eaten up by the fuel cost.
He said buying a gun in VA is now worse than MD. At least in MD there is no wait for a long gun.

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