A group consisting of Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, and Senators John Cornyn, Joe Manchin, Christopher Murphy, Shelley Capito, and Thom Tillis has visited on Friday the Criminal Justice Information Services Division (CJIS) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Clarksburg, West Virginia.
While in Clarksburg, they received a series of briefings and demonstrations on how the recent changes made to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), following the passage of the NICS Denial Notification Act and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), are protecting Americans across the country. NICS is the FBI’s national system that, as required by law, conducts a background check on people in over 40 states and territories who want to purchase or possess a firearm or explosive. NICS assists 13 additional states that conduct their own checks, which often rely on data held by CJIS.
Implemented this past September, the NICS Denial Notification Act now requires NICS to alert state and local law enforcement to background check denials, so that these authorities can decide whether to investigate or prosecute these denied individuals.
Building on that, BSCA further expanded and strengthened NICS background checks, including by enhancing checks for young adults, aged 18 to 21, to now require contacting state agencies and local law enforcement for disqualifying juvenal criminal history and mental health records. The legislation also closed the so-called “boyfriend loophole” by expanding the “misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence” prohibitor. Now, persons convicted on or after June 25, 2022, of a qualifying offense against a person with whom they are or were in a “dating relationship” will be denied their purchase of a firearm as a result of their background check.
Separately, CJIS Assistant Director Michael A. Christman and his executive staff provided the group with an overview of the National Threat Operations Center, which serves as the primary communication channel for the public to provide information pertaining to federal violations and threats to national security and operates out of CJIS.