Quote Originally Posted by GunLawyer001 View Post
...Making mistakes on the 4473 is a victimless crime. Our govt should concentrate on preventing actual victims, not on herding the sheep along arbitrary pathways.
Seems to me that much like credit bureaus, there should be an option to do a 'soft' pull on PICS and/or NICS. A 'would I qualify if I tried?' type inquiry that returns a "yes" or the reason why not, without the implication of getting busted for 'lying' on a 4473... Heck, I'd even settle for a simple "yes" or "no" and then you have to go find out why if no.

You'd still have to ink the form to buy a gun, with full penalties for lying (and at that point, more likely ill-intent/deserved).

It would sure make life easier for FFL's, customers, etc. and avoid the unfortunate situation of folks 'trying it' to find out (as we see here all too often).

It seems to me there's some level of 'right to know' by the individual too, without risking a criminal offense to find out. I know you can request your 'record' from PSP, but even getting that and seeing an offense doesn't help the average Joe know if many of the most common offenses are disqualifying (as we're asked here all too often).

It's something folks might even want to check with no intention to buy a gun, just for identity protection. True story: there is someone who lives in the area with my exact (rather unusual) name & spelling. Probably some distant cousin, but I don't know. Might even be a woman who married into the family (the name is pretty gender-neutral, like Sam or Chris). Having said that, I've TWICE been called into the local district magistrate's office to account for my unpaid tickets, and had to point out that it's a different middle initial and SSN they're looking for. It's conceivable one day I could get turned down for PICS based on something they do erroneously entered for me... I'd sooner know that BEFORE I get turned down and PSP comes calling...

Not to mention letting LEOs get on with pursuing the real baddies versus folks who are asked to fill out a form with possible criminal implications and no real understanding of what's being asked.

Downsides???

Only one I can really think of is alluded to above: It would be easier for folks who -are- trying to skirt the law to determine that something's been "missed" and they can slide under the wire. Seems a bit of an outlier to me.