FBI Plays In-Your-Face-Game with FOIA Request on NICS/NY Ammunition Checks - Ammoland.com

 The Federal Bureau of Investigation responded Thursday with what it characterizes as its “final” release regarding a Freedom of Information Act request filed by this correspondent in March for documents and records to clarify authority and determine decision-making authorizing the use of the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) for New York State ammunition background checks. Instead of producing what was asked for, the FBI returned copies of two nonresponsive Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections anyone can pull off the internet, 28 CFR § 25.6 Accessing Records in the System, and 28 CFR § 25.11 Prohibited Activities and Penalties.

Neither even remotely address the scope of the request:

• All communication regarding New York’s usage of NICS for ammunition background checks, including all correspondence between FBI and New York for utilization of NICS for ammunition background checks;
• All records, including memoranda of understanding, user agreements or contracts for New York to be allowed access to the NICS system;
• All records regarding consequences for a state misusing the NICS system for non-approved uses, including communication/correspondence to that state warning about non-approved uses of the NICS system and resolution of any issue FBI raised with the state;
• All records regarding any authority for the FBI to conduct ammunition background checks;
• All records that discuss or describe permissible usage of the NICS system; and
• All records, including communication/correspondence from other states and the FBI limited to ammunition background checks and the NICS system.

At the heart of this effort is to determine how NICS can be used for purposes for which it is not federally authorized, and to make public internal documents that FBI relies on to proceed regardless. It’s especially perplexing because there is no mention of ammunition in the Department of Justice’s NICS rules for FFLs and POCs. (New York is now a “Point of Contact” state, and per the National Shooting Sports Foundation, “FBI will disconnect all connections with FFLs once NY becomes a POC.”) Nor can it be found in Public Law 110–180, “An Act To improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System,” or the “Fix NICS Act.”

Further, a reliable source tells me that during an FBI/ATF Townhall at the 2024 SHOT Show, NICS Section Chief Trudy Ford explained that using the NICS system for ammunition background checks was not an approved use of the NICS system.

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