Why Can’t Connecticut Seem to Keep It’s Firearm Background Check System Online?

Saturday was supposed to be a big sales day for Lock N’ Load Firearms which is located in Southington, Connecticut. The gun shop has two major sales each year and Saturday was its Customer Appreciation Day. The store spent a lot on advertising the event and on party goods. Several vendors came out for the sale.

The fun ended around 11:40 a.m. when the state’s computer system went down…and stayed down throughout most of the day. Josh, who works at the gun shop, estimates they lost thousands of dollars.

“Guns aren’t $200 or $300 anymore. They cost $600 or $800,” he said. “To set up an event like that, all the advertising, and then to not be able to sell firearms definitely hurt us. But here, it happens all of the time.”

The State of Connecticut doesn’t allow gun dealers to run their own NICS computer checks. It insists on running the checks for them, as well as a half-dozen other state checks. Josh said the state’s computer shutdowns are becoming far too common.

“I don’t know how to hold the state accountable,” he said. “I hate to think that a lawsuit is the answer, but that’s where we are at. We can’t flip the state reps and senators to get more fair representation at the state capitol.”

Matt, who works at The Gun Store in Waterbury, Connecticut, said the state’s computer shutdowns have become “random but consistent.”

“You can expect to go down every couple of days,” Matt said. “It’s more than I’ve ever experience in the past 20 years. I’m not saying that the State of Connecticut is intentionally doing it, but it’s been consistent enough lately. If only they used NICS and circumvented all the other six or seven checks they use. The problem is that the state legislature added all these checks. It’s created massive amounts of confusion.”

Common names, he said, like “John Smith” have become a serious issue for the state’s computer systems, which lack the clarity of a NICS Unique Personal Identification Number or UPIN, which gun owners can apply for.

“If they have a NICS UPIN, you find out quickly that it’s not the ‘John Smith’ wanted for murder in Idaho,” he said.

At Central Connecticut Arms in Portland, Connecticut, staffer Ronnie said the shop lost thousands of dollars.

“We couldn’t sell any firearms. It was not a very good day,” he said. “Some customers put their purchases on layaway, which helped.”

The state had another major shutdown just a few weeks ago, Ronnie said.

“We were down for three days. They don’t explain when it’s going to be back up,” he said. “We just sit around here hoping it will be back up soon. It’s a major pain in the ass, man.”

Holly Sullivan is president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League and serves on the board of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

She said there is growing speculation on whether the shutdown was an effort to prevent state residents from purchasing firearms.

“Unlike other states, FFLs are not allowed to use the NICS system themselves. The State of Connecticut acts as a middleman between the FFLs and the NICS system,” she said. “The state does NICS and state-level checks. Usually, if there’s an IT issue, every FFL gets an email. None were sent on Saturday. This ‘breakdown’ was unusual. Generally, the state will say it’s an IT issue, but they didn’t do that this time.”

Hundreds of Connecticut gun shops were affected, she said.

“This is a symptom of a much larger problem,” she said. “The state wants to control us, but they’re not adequately doing their job. They don’t trust FFLs to do their job. People are denied their Constitutional rights. Let’s say if someone works offshore, it could be months before they get this opportunity again. And besides, Saturday at noon is prime time to buy guns!”

The state has an extreme anti-gun history, Sullivan explained.

“Attorney General William Tong—his hobby is being anti-gun,” she said. “Every legislative session, every anti-gun bill was proposed by Tong. And then he’d bring in his Mom’s Demand action crew. It’s an ongoing problem. Dealers lost a lot of money.”

Neither Connecticut Attorney General Tong nor Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection commissioner Ronnell A. Higgins, whose office is responsible for conducting the background checks, returned calls seeking their comments for this story.

 

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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.