Close the Charleston Loophole
What does it solve?
Under federal law, gun purchases may move forward by default after three business days—even if a background check has not been completed.118 U.S.C. 922(t)(1)(B)(ii). While more than 90 percent of federal background checks are completed in minutes,2FBI, “National Instant Criminal Background Check System 2022 Operations Report,” 2023, https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics-2022-operations-report.pdf/view. those that take longer than three business days are four times as likely to be denied.3Everytown Research analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Operations Reports 2015–2019, https://bit.ly/36nWN6X. Of the 76,693 checks that were delayed past three business days and resolved within 90 days annually, 4,059 checks were later found to have resulted in illegal sales—or 5.3 percent. Each year, of the 7,732,373 checks processed by the FBI that were immediately resolved, 102,717 were denied—or 1.3 percent.
In 2015, the white supremacist who shot and killed nine Black worshipers at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was able to purchase a gun because of a dangerous loophole in the background check system. He was legally prohibited from having a firearm, but was able to complete the purchase because his background check was not completed within three business days.1Michael S. Schmidt, “Background Check Flaw Let Dylann Roof Buy Gun, FBI Says,” New York Times, July 10, 2015, https://nyti.ms/2VmlD0y.
Firearm sales should not be permitted to move forward until a background check on the prospective purchaser has been completed.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Which states have closed or limited the Charleston Loophole?
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Alabama has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Alaska has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Arizona has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Arkansas has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
California has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- 10-day waiting period for all firearm sales; extends time for background check to 30 days.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Colorado has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Dealer may not transfer firearm until background check is complete.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Connecticut has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time for background check to 60 days
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Delaware has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time for background check to 25 days
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Florida has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Dealers may not transfer gun until 3 business days have elapsed from purchase, or until background check is complete, whichever occurs later.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Georgia has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Hawaii has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Permit to purchase not issued earlier than 14 days after application and authorities have up to 20 days to issue or deny permit.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Idaho has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Illinois has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities have 30 days to issue or deny application for permit, required to purchase any firearm.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Indiana has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Iowa has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Kansas has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Kentucky has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Louisiana has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Maine has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Maryland has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities have 30 days to issue or deny application for permit to purchase a handgun; 7-day waiting period required for sales of certain firearms.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Massachusetts has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities have 40 days to issue or deny permits to purchase firearms.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Michigan has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Minnesota has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Requires a 30-day waiting period for dealer sales of handguns and semiautomatic military-style assault weapons (can be waived after purchaser determined not to be prohibited); authorities also have 30 days to issue or deny an application for permits to purchase firearms
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Mississippi has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Missouri has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Montana has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Nebraska has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Nevada has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
New Hampshire has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
New Jersey has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities have 30 days to issue or deny an application for permits to purchase firearms
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
New Mexico has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Requires 7-day waiting period for all firearms; extends time for background check to 20 days
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
New York has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time for background check to 30 days.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
North Carolina has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities have 14 days to issue or deny an application for a permit to purchase a handgun.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
North Dakota has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Ohio has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Oklahoma has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Oregon has adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Pennsylvania has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time to complete background check to 10 days.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Rhode Island has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Requires 7-day waiting period for all firearms
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
South Carolina has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
South Dakota has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Tennessee has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Authorities deny sales if prospective purchaser charged with crime that would prohibit them from firearm possession, even if final disposition is not available to background check operator.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Texas has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Utah has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Dealer may not transfer firearm until background check is complete.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Vermont has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time for background check to 7 business days
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Virginia has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Extends time to complete background check to 5 days.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Washington has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Dealer may not transfer firearm until background check is complete.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
West Virginia has not adopted this policy
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Wisconsin has adopted this policy
- What does the state law require?
- Dealers must wait 5 business days to transfer handgun if authorities have not resolved the background check.
Charleston Loophole Closed or Limited
Wyoming has not adopted this policy
Myth & Fact
Myth
The loophole is insignificant because 97 percent of all background checks are completed within three business days.
Fact
Background checks delayed more than three business days are four more likely to be denied.1Everytown Research analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Operations Reports 2015–2019, https://bit.ly/36nWN6X. Of the 76,693 checks that were delayed past three business days and resolved within 90 days annually, 4,059 checks were later found to have resulted in illegal sales—or 5.3 percent. Each year, of the 7,732,373 checks processed by the FBI that were immediately resolved, 102,717 were denied—or 1.3 percent. This means that the loophole results in prohibited persons obtaining firearms. Between January and mid-November, 2020, the FBI had flagged nearly 6,000 gun sales because a purchaser who could not legally possess a firearm was able to buy one because of the Charleston loophole—more than in any other entire calendar year.
How it works
Closing this loophole would ensure that no firearm is sold with an incomplete background check.
While federal law requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks on all prospective gun buyers, due to an NRA-backed loophole in the 1993 Brady Bill, gun sales can proceed by default after three business days even though law enforcement has up to 90 days to conduct a background check.118 U.S.C. 922(t)(1)(B)(ii).
Most background checks are completed on the spot, but every year hundreds of thousands of checks take longer than three business days.2Everytown Research analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Operations Reports 2015–2019, https://bit.ly/36nWN6X. Between 2015 and 2019, 1,421,928 checks were delayed past three business days, or an average of 284,386 checks every year. Among the checks that the FBI is able to resolve before the 90-day deadline, more than 5 percent each year are found to have resulted in illegal sales.3Everytown Research analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Operations Reports 2015–2019, https://bit.ly/36nWN6X. Between 2015 and 2019, 20,295 checks were referred to the ATF for firearm retrieval, or an average of 4,059 checks every year. It is likely many more prohibited purchasers get their hands on a gun because of this loophole, but there is no way to know definitively how many because the records for more than 200,000 background checks that were not completed within 90 days are deleted from the system each year.4Everytown Research analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Operations Reports 2015–2019, https://bit.ly/36nWN6X. Between 2015 and 2019, 1,038,465 checks were unresolved at 90 days and therefore purged from the system, or an average of 207,693 checks every year.
This loophole presents a special danger for domestic violence victims. In its 2016 report, the Government Accountability Office found that background checks involving domestic violence flags take longer to resolve.5U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Gun Control: Analyzing Available Data Could Help Improve Background Checks Involving Domestic Violence Records,” 2016, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-483. Domestic violence prohibitions involve multiple criteria that often require significant investigation and coordination with local law enforcement. For example, because federal law only prohibits abusers from buying a firearm if they were married to or were a current or recent former dating partner6In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanding the prohibition to include those with misdemeanor domestic violence convictions who abused a current or recent former dating partner. Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Pub. L. No. 117-159, 136 Stat. 1313, 1332-1333 (2022) (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33) ); see also 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). of their victims (or if they shared a child or a home), a background check may require an investigation into the relationship between the parties. Between 2006 and 2015,7During this period, federal law prohibited abusers from buying a firearm if they were married to, shared a child or a home with their victims, current or former dating partners were not included. In 2022, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act expanding the prohibition to include those with misdemeanor domestic violence convictions who abused a current or recent former dating partner. Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Pub. L. No. 117-159, 136 Stat. 1313, 1332-1333 (2022) (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33) ); see also 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9). it took the FBI more than three business days to determine 30 percent of denials based on misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence. That means licensed dealers were legally authorized under federal law to transfer guns to 18,000 people who were prohibited because of convictions for misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence simply because their background checks took longer than three days.8U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Gun Control: Analyzing Available Data Could Help Improve Background Checks Involving Domestic Violence Records,” 2016, https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-16-483.
Congress can close the Charleston loophole by prohibiting firearm sales from moving forward unless a background check on the prospective purchaser has been completed. In the absence of a federal law, states can pass laws to give authorities longer than three business days to complete a check.
By the numbers
4x
Background checks delayed more than 3 business days are 4 times more likely to result in a denial determination.
<200,000
More than 200,000 background checks take longer than three business days every year.
1 in 4
