ABC / National Instant Criminal Background Check System ( NICS)

National Instant Criminal Background Check System

The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) provides a method of checking available information to determine whether a person is disqualified from possessing a firearm under federal or state law. The NICS contains records on individuals who are disqualified from possessing a firearm. These records include an individual's name, sex, race, other personal descriptive data, date of birth, state of residence, and sometimes a unique identifying number. The NICS also contains criminal information which may disqualify an individual from possessing a firearm under federal or state law.

PURPOSE: The purpose of NICS, which was established pursuant to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Brady Act), is to provide a means of checking available information to determine whether a person is disqualified from possessing a firearm under federal or state law.

ACCESS CONSTRAINTS: All records in NICS are protected from unauthorized access through appropriate administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. These safeguards include restricting access to those with a need-to-know to perform their official duties, and using locks, alarm devices, passwords, and/or encrypting data communications.

USE CONSTRAINTS: Users of NICS are restricted to only those privileges necessary to perform an authorized task(s).