Delaware NICS Act Record Improvement Program

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-180 ("NICS Improvement Act"), was signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008. The NICS Improvement Act amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 ("the Brady Act") (Pub. L. 103-159), under which the Attorney General established the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The Brady Act requires Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to contact the NICS before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person for information on whether the proposed transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under state or federal law. The NICS Improvement Act authorizes grants to be made in a manner consistent with the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

Presently, in Delaware, many citizens are being denied the right to purchase a firearm because of data mismatches that are occurring at the federal level from historical data submitted by the state. As record checks are performed, missing or erroneous data is being returned and causing delays in firearm purchases. The Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security is seeking funds to match criminal history records in the state’s criminal history repository against the G4 file, the file that contains the records that have been validated by Health and Social Services as true commitments of persons prohibited from purchasing or owning a firearm. Delaware is also proposing to review the G4 mental records and determine if a person has an existing State Bureau of Identification (SBI) Number. If a person has an existing SBI number, the number will be appended to the G4 database for law enforcement use. Additionally, some G4 records were created when an individual had a different name. By linking systems together, DELJIS will create a routine to add an alias name to a record thus providing law enforcement with the best choices and variation of names to use during criminal history searches. Finally, DELJIS staff will perform matches between the state’s court involuntary commitment file and the Delaware Health and Social Services file. Updated information will be added to the state’s database and the NICS Index.

CA/NCF