Only black powder guns will be excluded from background checks, according to Johnson, who has 14 years experience selling sporting goods. The new system will replace voluntary checks conducted on handgun buyers by state and local law enforcement agencies since 1993. The effective date was set in the 1993 Brady Act, which established federal background checks for handgun purchases only. Under the new system, the number of checks performed will double because the new law requires background approvals not just for handgun buyers, but also for those who buy rifles and shotguns. All will be covered now, as will an additional 2.5 million annual transactions when an owner retrieves a firearm from a pawn shop.
Officials foresee some difficulties initially with the expanded checks because of volume.
December is the busiest month of the year for gun sales, with hunting seasons coinciding with Christmas buying. To prepare, the FBI hired and began training 513 people in West Virginia to handle its share of the work, set up two telephone centers through a contractor and sent teams to brief the nation's 106,000 gun dealers and pawnshop owners. Federal law bans gun purchases by people convicted or under indictment for felony charges, fugitives, the mentally ill, those with dishonorable military discharges, those who have renounced U.S. citizenship, illegal aliens, illegal drug users and those convicted of domestic violence misdemeanors or who are under domestic violence restraining orders. Questions about being under a restraining order for stalking are some of the new ones added to the form, according to Johnson. The form is a Firearms Transaction Record issued by the Department of Treasury.