Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022-Criteria for National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) Background Checks of Firearm Handlers
Key claim: Federal firearms dealers may now voluntarily use the FBI’s NICS system to run background checks on current or prospective employees who handle guns, not only on gun buyers.
Abstract
(Rule · Justice Department) The United States Department of Justice (“Department”) is amending several of its regulations pertaining to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS” or “system”) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) to authorize Federal Firearm Licensees (“FFLs” or “licensees”) to use NICS for purposes of voluntarily conducting employment background checks relating to certain current or prospective FFL employees. This final rule describes in more detail how, upon its effective date, FFLs will be able to conduct “firearm handler background checks” (“FHCs”) of “eligible employees.”
Why this matters
Firearms dealers have long been required to run NICS checks on buyers but had no uniform federal mechanism to vet employees with access to inventory; this rule closes that gap on a voluntary basis. For employees and job applicants at gun stores, it means an FFL may now ask them to consent to a federal background check as a condition of handling firearms, with implications for hiring, retention, and privacy. The change is narrow in scope but is one of the first operational civil-rights-adjacent changes to flow from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.