Gun stores have a difficult job. While it sounds like a heck of
an awesome way to make a living, surrounded by firearms, but that’s before you
take into account the reams of paperwork required by the federal government just
to be legal. One screw up can have some nasty ramifications on your livelihood
and possibly your freedom.
To make matters worse, however, is that the same federal
government can screw your business over just by
not doing anything.
This past weekend was
supposed to be one of the most profitable for Scott Roe, the owner of Spillway
Sportsman off Highway 1.
“Firearms sales are a huge
push this time of year,” Roe said.
However, many of his
Christmas shoppers left empty-handed because Roe could not perform the
federally required background checks. He said the FBI’s National Instant
Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was inaccessible.
…
The two dealers estimate
the system crash cost them $70,000 combined. They said it’s been a recurring
problem the weekend before Christmas for a few years now.
“When the government can
effectively shut you down, it’s scary,” [Jim] McClain said.
The
FBI acknowledged an issue occurred on its NICS website. WBRZ contacted a number
of gun stores across the state. Dealers said the system crashes every year
before Christmas, probably because of a large number of background checks being
conducted.
Further, it appears you couldn’t call in for a background check
either.
Here’s the kicker, though.
You know who will get in trouble for this? No one. Not a soul.
One retailer alone lost out on $70,000 in sales. It doesn’t take
long before you’re talking millions in lost revenue for just a two-day
outage. Now, I get that these are gross receipts we’re talking about
here, rather than what goes in the dealers’ pockets, but even so, I don’t
imagine too many are able to just shrug off $70,000 in lost sales.
But no one in the government seems inclined to step up and try
and make sure business have the means to operate in accordance with the law.
If the NICS crashes this time every year, then why hasn’t anyone
looked at beefing up the system? Especially now when you have an ostensibly
pro-gun Congress. Making the NICS more functional is one of those issues that’s
likely to draw little opposition. Republicans want to make it possible for
people to buy guns when they want and Democrats would likely want to make sure
the background check system actually works when it’s needed. No one loses.
Yet we can’t seem to get anyone to say, “You know what? We
should probably do that.”
If there were no other reasons to oppose universal background
checks, this would be it. If I want to sell a gun because I need the cash, why
should I have to wait because Uncle Sam can’t get his NICS act together? It’s
not my fault the system is overloaded, for crying out loud. It’s not these gun
stores’ fault either, so why are we allowing them to be punished for what seems
to be a known problem?
If you’re going to have a NICS system in the first place, make
sure the blasted thing works when needed.
