NICS Denied, advice?

[KingofChaos]

I'm a long time lurker, and only decided to create an account so I could get your opinion on my situation. I'm a college student, and am only here in Texas for holidays. I recently purchased a rifle from the Arms Room in LC back in March while on Spring break, and everything went off without a hitch. So I get home for the summer, go to purchase another handgun, and when it comes time for the NICS check, I get denied. I've never been arrested and thus have no criminal record, so I have no idea why I got denied. My only guess is that I'm a III and perhaps it picked up on my father or grandfather who definitely can not pass a NICS check. I've already begun the appeal process, and have requested that they mail me the reason for my denial. My question is, in the mean should I no longer carry in my car? I know I've never done anything, but from what I understand denials are put into a database accessible by LE, and I would hate to get stopped for a traffic violation or something, and get trouble because I had my HG in the glove compartment. Any advice would be appreciated.

[Teamless]

in the mean should I no longer carry in my car?

If you are legally allowed to own a firearm, the NICS denial doesn't change that, only that you cannot buy another until it is cleared up
I would continue to carry in my car.

[Skiprr]

I’m not a lawyer, but in my opinion an NICS denial has no bearing whatsoever on your ability to own and, under the Texas Motorist Protection Act (Penal Code §46.02), carry a handgun concealed in your vehicle. If you have no wants or warrants, are legally allowed to own a handgun, and don’t plan to engage in any criminal activity ( ), I think you’re good to go.

The NICS matter is a wholly different issue, and is driven by the database they maintain. No doubt, as you say, it’s probably a name similarity/confusion that caused the denial.

And...welcome to the Forum!

[KingofChaos]

Thanks. Today is a big day for me. I finally made an account and my new member orientation at PSC is at 6. Any idea if I have to wait until after they process my appeal to apply for my CHL? I'm only going to be here until the beginning of August, then back to school, so I had planned on getting it done by then so I could get the plastic in December over winter break. With their processing time being so long, I don't even know if it'll be worked out by the time I have to go back, which would basically mean not applying until December, and not having it until this time next year when I'm finished with school!

[Salty1]

You will need to go through the appeal process or go get a CHL and get it done once and for all so you can buy in your home state. You can also send in your prints and get a Unique Personal Identification number which you would put on the 4473 forms, that will identify you and stop the misclassification. Once you get the latter back for the reason of denial it will spell out the steps to take, personally I would make this a priority and get it done sooner rather than later. I have a customer who faced the same problem, they came back with the reason for denial...... claimed he was addicted to illegal drugs...... I have known him for many years (a co-worker at my real job) and know for certain that they have some bad information that they have referenced.... please keep us informed on your outcome and good luck....

[raptor]

No reason to wait on the feds before applying for a CHL. The DPS employees seem smart enough to figure out that you weren't arrested before you were born. The feds on the other hand.

[michael e]

You do not need to wait for the FBI to send you paper work back to apply for CHL. When I did mine it was 27 days from filling with FBI to getting paper work saying its not you. I went to do prints day I got finger print cards in and sent them off same day. When you do the appel bad thing is it states its only good for 30 days from start of appel and only at store you where denied. CHL is the way to go if you have a common name.

[Nightshift]

I was recently denied on a NICS check after purchasing another long rifle the week before. I immediately sent in the appeal, I had no arrest records or convictions for anything. I got a reply back about 3-4 days later and basically said I was a person addicted to controlled substance or similar in description. Then I had to go get fingerprints done for about $20 bucks at a local fingerprinting business here in my city. It was all relatively painless but the whole experience was rather stressful I must say because of course you are wondering what the FBI has on you and also my name is not very common. Plus the guy at the FFL Dealer is like looking at you and you are wondering if he thinks you are lying when you tell him you are innocent and shouldnt have been denied. Then you have to call into the NICS office every time you do a transaction with them to confirm they received what you sent them. They will not tell you anything if much but some of the people you talk to are way nicer than others, for example, some of the people will be more than helpful with suggestions on what to do, and some will be very tight lipped, one of the nicest people I talked with actually told me she was an investigator so I suspect some of them are actual FBI and some are just civilians that are on some kind of power trip or may just have a political motivation, or maybe its just personality, the majority of people I talked with were very nice. At any rate, after turning in the fingerprints, which took about a week to get to the office in Virginia I got a call from my FFL dealer saying he got the green light. When i called the NICS office the week prior they said there were about 2 months behind getting things processed but I guess if your case is pretty obvious that you were not the person it doesnt take months like some people are saying. They had the approval the next day after they got the fingerprints from me so its all good now but I dont really want to have to go through that again. I will be taking a CHL class in the coming week even though I dont own a handgun at the moment so hopefully this will make things easier next time I do decide to purchase a handgun or rifle. The whole process cost me some money and a good deal of time and a fair amount of stress. One thing that bothers me is that doing this appeal does not correct anything since they dont actually have a real file on you the next time you go in even after a successful appeal you may have to go through the entire process again. They should at least flag you account saying your appeal was overturned because although they say they dont keep a file on you I bet that if you get denied at one point, somewhere in their system they have a flag on your name that says you were denied so if they have that then they should also have a flag stating it was overturned.

[AEA]

You realize that you posted to an old thread that was started Thu Jun 16, 2011 ?

Welcome to the site!

[Nightshift]

You realize that you posted to an old thread that was started Thu Jun 16, 2011 ?

Welcome to the site!

Yes but i did a search first and couldnt find any newer ones that really had an appropriate title for the topic. Thanks for your excellent observation.

[jmra]

Been there done that.
Convict in NJ has same first name, same middle initial, same last name, and same birth date. Haven't had any issues since getting my CHL 4 yrs ago.
I've only been denied once but was delayed several times. Immediately after the denial I called the FBI and spoke with an agent. It took a while to get him to open up but he finally stated that it was obvious to him that I was not the same person as the convict. He said that there were a number of call handlers that pride themselves in finding reasons to deny purchases. In my case the person who took the call actually violated Protocol as she should have sent the request to an investigator instead of denying the request.
Oh well, no more NICS for me. Love my CHL.

[Skiprr]

Been there done that.
Convict in NJ has same first name, same middle initial, same last name, and same birth date.

Ouch.

Maybe there's something to the wacky names "celebrities" give their children. Moon Unit Zapa; Sage Moonblood Stallone; or the winner, Uma Thurman's new daughter: Rosalind Arusha Arkadina Altalune Florence Thurman-Busson. What's that kid gonna do when she buys a house and has to sign all the closing papers? Her hand will cramp up so bad she'll have to do it in shifts over two days.

But I'll almost guarantee that there isn't a convict in New Jersey with exactly the same name.

Oh well, no more NICS for me. Love my CHL.