The federal government is working to improve reporting of persons banned from buying firearms, the Department of Justice reports.
The program was authorized in 2008 in the wake of the April 2007 shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech. The funds are being continued for the 2014 fiscal year.
The Virginia Tech shooter purchased guns from a federally licensed gun dealer because information about his prohibiting mental health history was not available on the database.
The database is intended to readily identify persons banned from firearm purchases by federal or state law. It will also reduce delays in firearm purchases by law-abiding persons, the government announcement states.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) is authorized to provide for improvements in the accuracy, quality, timeliness, immediate accessibility and integration of state criminal history and related records. It is also authorized to support the development and enhancement of national systems of criminal history and related records, including the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and the records of the National Crime Information Center.
States will be required to meet goals for completeness of the records submitted to the attorney general identifying individuals prohibited by state or federal law from possessing firearms.
The records covered include automated information needed by the NICS to identify felony convictions, felony indictments, fugitives from justice, drug arrests and convictions, domestic violence protection orders, and misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.
Records also sought by this program permit persons who have been adjudicated as mentally defective or have been committed to a mental institution to be added to the database.