BRADLEY, WV (WOAY) – On Thursday the United States House of Representatives passed a bill to expand background checks on gun sales. The bill was passed in two parts, part one requires background checks to be completed on private and online sales which means that you would have to go to a gun shop in order to get a background check before finishing your purchase.
The second part extends the review period from three days to ten days. Owner of Precision Weapons, Kent Harless says that the increased review period would only prevent about three percent of buyers from being approved.
“When it’s all said and done there are even less that are denied,” said owner of Precision Weapons Corporation Kent Harless. “I think in the last couple years out of all of them I’ve maybe three that where denied out of all the checks after the background check was initially delayed.”
Harless also said that in many cases it would be hard to enforce the background checks on private purchases especially if the gun has traded hands before. However, getting a background check done usually doesn’t take more than fifteen minutes.
“When Covid first happened back in February, March everybody was going crazy buying guns you had such a huge volume of people NICS got overloaded,” Harless said. “Sometimes it be like you’d be on the phone for six hours trying to get a background check through. Usually if somebody comes in and purchases a firearm it’s about fifteen minutes from the time they fill out the form to the time I call it in.”
It’s also important to remember that different firearms require different types background checks.
“For riffles and shotguns and what they define as others it’s a regular background check,” said Harless. “Now NFA weapons that requires fingerprints, photographs, and a transfer fee and that takes anywhere from six to twelve months.”
Harless recommends anyone looking to purchase a firearm get a concealed permit so you will have the proper training.
