For Immediate Release
August
24, 2006
|
Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
|
FBI
Releases Annual Report Highlighting 2005 Accomplishments
of the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System (NICS)
Washington,
D.C. - The
FBI today released its annual report on the performance
of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System
(NICS) which is designed to screen prospective firearms
transferees for criminal record history information.
NICS was implemented by the FBI in 1998 as mandated by
the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. NICS is maintained
and operated out of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS)
Division in Clarksburg, WV. In 2005, NICS produced many
achievements in furtherance of its mission by identifying,
developing, and implementing system improvements to enhance
its overall effectiveness. The FBI is committed to providing
timely and accurate determination of firearms and explosives
eligibility for prospective transferees. The following
information highlights several of the NICS’ achievements
in 2005:
- From NICS inception on November 30, 1998, through December
31, 2005, a total of 62,060,717 background checks have
been conducted.
- The Explosives Background Check Process was implemented
by the NICS Section in February 2003. As of December
31, 2005, a total of 116,010 explosives background checks
have been processed by the NICS Section.
- In 2005, the NICS Index was increased by an additional
295,835 record entries. From NICS program inception through
December 31, 2005, the NICS Index has witnessed an increase
in the number of readily available federally-prohibiting
records by approximately 325 percent. As of December
31, 2005, approximately 3,960,682 prohibiting records
were maintained in the NICS Index.
- The NICS Section achieved a 91.47 percent Immediate
Determination Rate (IDR) for 2005, thus meeting its goal
of maintaining a 90 percent or better IDR.
- As of December 31, 2005, the NICS Section had obtained
over 547,000 dispositions for updating to criminal history
records; forwarded over 15,270 documents to state authorities
for record maintenance at the state level; and scanned
over 100,000 criminal history documents for supplemental
use with future background check transactions.
- On November 1, 2005, the 60 millionth background check
was initiated via the NICS and processed by the NICS
Section.
The
Voluntary Appeal File (VAF) allows the NICS Section to
maintain information pertaining to non-prohibited persons
to assist in the timely review and determination of a
person’s
eligibility to receive firearms. As of December 31, 2005,
there were 782 successful entries in the VAF database.
In 2005, a total of 297 VAF participants were able to receive
a firearm without experiencing a lengthy delay or denial.
A copy of the 2005 NICS report can be found on the FBI
web site at http://www.fbi.gov/
hq/cjisd/nics/ops_report2005/ops_report2005.pdf.
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