How is NICS notified if someone is convicted of a felony or a dishonorable discharge

[Midwest]

What method is NICS notified when someone is convicted of a felony or a dishonorable discharge?

Does the court fax the court proceedings to NICS ?
Or fax the name of the person convicted over to NICS?
Or do they email it to NICS?
Do they call NICS?

Who's responsibility is it to notify NICS?

 

[FROGO207]

Good question. I believe in our state the court notifies the State Police. Then they notify the feds. Like the court notifies DMV and State Police with a OUI/DUI conviction. With the military I bet there are a couple dozen agencies involved. I bet someone here will enlighten us as to what that is though as I have never dealt with military matters in any way.

 

[alsaqr]

There are lots of unanswered questions on military input to NICS. There are military IG reports from 1997, 2015 and 2017 that state the US military is failing to report many crimes to the FBI.

During a long period that included the church shooters conviction, the USAF made no reports to the FBI. Reason given: The person trained to make the submissions departed.

The 1997 DOD IG report:

https://media.defense.gov/1997/Feb/10/2001715391/-1/-1/1/crimhist.pdf

 

[LoneGoose]

"During a long period that included the church shooters conviction, the USAF made no reports to the FBI. Reason given: The person trained to make the submissions departed."

Well, that lame excuse for lack of compliance has finally made it to the big time. I couldn't count how many times I have had to back pedal and jump through hoops to get things done when encountered with that bunk. Any decent NCOIC or junior officer would have that task covered before losing that person. Yep, the good old Air Farce, where a plausible excuse trumps good management practices every time. Thanks for listening - I've been carrying that for a long time.

 

[alsaqr]

Here is the 2015 DOD IG Report:

https://media.defense.gov/2015/Feb/12/2001713470/-1/-1/1/DODIG-2015-081.pdf

 

[George Dickel]

"During a long period that included the church shooters conviction, the USAF made no reports to the FBI. Reason given: The person trained to make the submissions departed."

Well, that lame excuse for lack of compliance has finally made it to the big time. I couldn't count how many times I have had to back pedal and jump through hoops to get things done when encountered with that bunk. Any decent NCOIC or junior officer would have that task covered before losing that person. Yep, the good old Air Farce, where a plausible excuse trumps good management practices every time. Thanks for listening - I've been carrying that for a long time.

The Army was and most likely is still the same. Many times I took over a position where my predecessor had left as much a 3 months prior to my arrival and the excuse I heard most from the people still there, "not my job, man". I would be willing to bet all the branches of the military are the same.

 

[MarkDido]

What method is NICS notified when someone is convicted of a felony or a dishonorable discharge?

Does the court fax the court proceedings to NICS ?
Or fax the name of the person convicted over to NICS?
Or do they email it to NICS?
Do they call NICS?

Who's responsibility is it to notify NICS?

A criminal arrest, misdemeanor or felony, will be recorded by the States criminal history database, as well as the FBI's (NCIC)
These should be a court disposition for each case showing if the person was convicted or not.

I would imagine the people manning the NICS computers query NCIC as well as other databases.

And FWIW, not all convicted felons automatically lose their gun rights.

"4. Certain "white collar" crimes that result in a felony conviction don't prohibit those felons from owning guns. For example, felony convictions related to antitrust laws, restraint of trade, or unfair trade practices do not carry the same prohibition on gun ownership even if the conviction results in imprisonment for more than a year."

 

[oneshooter]

The Army was and most likely is still the same. Many times I took over a position where my predecessor had left as much a 3 months prior to my arrival and the excuse I heard most from the people still there, "not my job, man". I would be willing to bet all the branches of the military are the same.

I know that the USMC is just as bad. I was put into a "light duty" pool after getting 3 ribs cracked in training. Because of my previous "secret" security rating I was placed at a desk where I would read and modify reports that were to be released for public use. There was a 3 month backlog because the last guy did not reenlist! They knew this 3 months in advance!

 

[BSA1]

A big problem with NICS is "garbage in, garbage out."

In a previous life one of my duties for several years was conducting criminal background checks of employees and visitors. The most common problem I ran into was Police Departments are great about entering arrest information but lax about the deposition of the case. We frequently would have to go so far as to contact the Court and get a certified copy of the deposition so we could decide whether to clear the person.

Another problem is determining what is a felony and what isn't. State criminal codes vary greatly. For example one state may have 3rd degree battery law. Kansas doesn't. So is the battery a felony or misdemeanor? (Then what is 1st and 2nd degree battery?)

In some States felony conviction do not result in jail time. So it makes it even harder to determine if the sentence was only probation. Even then there may not be a entry showing the person has successfully completed their probation.

The person convicted of a offense may not even realize it is a felony. The Court System is geared to move cases as quickly as possible through use of plea bargain agreements. Overworked Public Defenders push plea bargain agreement to their client without fully explaining or the client not having a complete understanding of what they are pleading guilty too. The Public Defender says "they will drop most of the charges if you plea guilty to this one. You will be only have to serve X months in jail or avoid going to jail altogether by paying a fine and doing probation" Since going to jail is the last place most people want to be probation sounds pretty good.

I recently worked a case where a person was making threats to harm staff members at a Clinic. I discovered he was on probation and call the Probation Office. Short story was the P.O. was not interested in what his client was doing until he was convicted of a felony.

It is easy to point fingers after the fact but the reality is the system does not work very well.