By J.L. MILLER
Dover Bureau reporter
12/29/2003

When customers enter a Delaware gun shop, they stand a higher chance of failing the mandatory background checks than would-be buyers in any other state, according to figures released this fall by the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Of the 9,464 checks run in Delaware in 2002, 407 purchases were rejected - a rejection rate of 4.3 percent. The national rate was 1.7 percent, and the second-highest ranking was a 3.8 percent rate in Colorado. Delaware's rate was higher in 2001, when 5.6 percent of attempted purchases were rejected. The national rate that year was 1.9 percent.

Law enforcement authorities, gun-shop owners and gun-control advocates said they are not sure there is any one reason why Delaware's rejection rate has been more than twice as high as the national rate for two years.

It may be that checks are more thorough in Delaware, where sellers must check potential buyers against a federal instant-check system and a separate state database. Twenty-six states use only the federal system.

Supporters and opponents of gun control said the background checks are doing what they were intended to do: cut off gun sales to felons and others who cannot legally possess firearms.

"The argument that criminals don't follow the laws so these laws don't work is clearly full of holes," said Rob Wilcox, spokesman for the gun-control advocacy group the Brady Campaign, named for James Brady, the press secretary for President Reagan who was seriously wounded in a 1981 attempt on Reagan's life. "We're seeing tens of thousands of purchases being rejected each year."

System has its flaws

But supporters and opponents of gun control said the statistics also illustrate serious flaws in the federal system, particularly in the accuracy and completeness of records that are searched before customers are cleared or rejected.

Some gun-shop owners said the federal system is prone to errors that delay purchases by legitimate buyers.

Charles Steele, owner of Steele's Gun Shop in Rehoboth Beach, said he has encountered many problems with the federal system.

"You can get declined for all kinds of reasons," Steele said. "If you were charged with something in 1952 and there's no disposition on that, then you have to get that expunged off your record. Most of the time, it's something stupid."

John Miller of Miller's Gun Center in New Castle said the federal system is more likely to stop a sale because of a past infraction that ends up being a mistaken entry in the database.

Gun-control advocates said the federal database is too limited, lacking records of committal to a mental institution or a misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction, for example. Delaware's state database contains those records, which may be one reason the state's rejection rate is high, they said.

An estimated 30 million records that should be in the federal database - records of people who are drug abusers, felons, mentally ill or those who have been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence - have not been supplied by the states, according to the Americans for Gun Safety Foundation. The nonprofit foundation, started in 2000 by Monster.com founder Andrew McKelvey, bills itself as a centrist organization working for sensible gun laws.

The incomplete database has prompted proposed federal legislation that would provide $250 million a year for five years to help states furnish records to the federal system.

The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., an ardent gun-control supporter, and Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a National Rifle Association board member. Senate and House versions of the legislation have been referred to committees.

The NRA and the Brady Campaign favor beefing up the database to keep guns out of the hands of felons, people with serious mental illness or those convicted of domestic abuse. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said his group has found thousands of cases of erroneous denials.

"After a third of a billion dollars in appropriations and 10 years, we still find some inadequacies in the system," Arulanandam said. "Our concern is twofold. We want the law-abiding people to get their firearms without hassle and we want the disqualified people to not get their hands on firearms."

Under federal law, a transaction is either approved, declined or delayed. The FBI has three business days to determine whether a delayed sale should go through. If no determination is made in three days, the sale automatically is approved. Gun dealers are not told why a sale has been declined or delayed, but applicants whose sales are blocked can contact the FBI or the state agency that blocked the sale for that information.

Nationally, 52 percent of the 136,000 rejections in 2002 were because of applicants' felony convictions or indictments, while about 14 percent were rejected for a domestic-violence misdemeanor or restraining order. The rest of the rejections ranged from attempted purchases by illegal immigrants or juveniles to people who were dishonorably discharged from the military. State-by-state rejection breakdowns were not available.

Quality records in Delaware

Twenty-six states rely solely on the FBI's National Instant Check System to run the background checks that federal law requires for anyone wanting to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer or pawn shop, while Delaware and 23 other states also run state checks. The FBI conducts checks for rifles and shotguns for Delaware and 35 other states, while the remaining states run their own checks.

Delaware's state-level check could be at least part of the reason for its 4.3 percent denial rate, according to Michael Bowling, lead author of the Bureau of Justice Statistics report. Delaware State Police Capt. Elizabeth Shamani, who supervises the state system, agreed the quality of Delaware's records probably weeds out some buyers who might pass the federal check.

Brady Campaign spokesman Wilcox said it is important that the federal system be able to access mental-health records and records of people who were convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence - records that are available to Delaware's system.

Thirty-three states do not keep mental-health disqualifying records, and many of those states have confidentiality laws that limit access to the records. Twenty other states lack databases for domestic-violence misdemeanors or restraining orders.

Reach J.L. Miller at 678-4271 or jlmiller@delawareonline.com.