VIDEO: P.I.C.S. problems plague Harrisburg Gun Show

**Ricochet** · March 24th, 2011, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by GunLawyer001

Um...what?

Were you under the misapprehension that NICS will approve a transfer to a PA resident who is barred by PA law from possessing firearms?

From everything that I have gathered, NICS only uses the federal Gun Control act of 1968 to determine whether a potential buyer is approved or denied. NICS does NOT enforce state gun buyer prohibitions from what I can tell.

With that said, I dont think NICS has the ability to regulate state laws.

**GunLawyer001** · March 24th, 2011, 12:38 AM

Originally Posted by Ricochet

From everything that I have gathered, NICS only uses the federal Gun Control act of 1968 to determine whether a potential buyer is approved or denied. NICS does NOT enforce state gun buyer prohibitions from what I can tell.

With that said, I dont think NICS has the ability to regulate state laws.

No, NICS is not going to approve a purchase that would violate State law, any more than PICS ignores Federal prohibitors.

**leeam** · March 24th, 2011, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by GunLawyer001

The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Remember that, when some Federal employee in Virginia is denying your gun purchase for no reason.

PICS operates independently of NICS? I thought PICS in turn contacted NICS, so if NICS were down, PICS couldn't approve.

**ehidle** · March 24th, 2011, 06:59 AM

Originally Posted by pyld

Two nines is not impressive uptime. At all. Especially given what this crap actually costs.

For the government to have two nines is actually quite impressive, no matter what the cost.

Perspective, my friend. Perspective.

**renegadephoenix** · March 24th, 2011, 10:03 AM

after working closely with gun dealers in other states who use the NICS system. we have found it to be far superior to PICS. the outages and delays are few and far between unlike PICS Going OFFLINE almost weekly, and Delays greater than 20 minutes are almost nonexistant with NICS. not to mention our $5.00 Immediate TAX on a Costitutional Right with PICS where as NICS is free for the call.

2 Senators and 6 Reps Saw first hand what happens with Pics and a high volume dealer. calls exceeding 25 minutes while customers waited and others just up and left. PICS actually shutting down while they were there. These Reps and Sen. are already drafting legislation to shut the system down along with the Sales Database.

**pyld** · March 24th, 2011, 02:07 PM

Originally Posted by ehidle

For the government to have two nines is actually quite impressive, no matter what the cost.

Perspective, my friend. Perspective.

I don't have any information firsthand to suggest this, but if PICS was not farmed out to one of the big consulting firms (or at least the design, implementation, and some of the operation thereof), I'd be shocked.

**FOACPAC** · March 29th, 2011, 02:22 PM

Just got this from my legislator's office. See attachment.

SYSTEM DOWNTIME

In 2009, PICS was operational 365 days, from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. for a total of 5,110 hours. PICS experienced 37.87 hours or 0.74 percent of the total operational hours out of service due to technical problems. This includes periods for which PICS was partially out of service, but still accepting background check calls, and those for which it was completely out of
service. Please see Appendix E for additional information.

76 percent of downtime was caused by PSP system problems.

17 percent of downtime was caused by technical difficulties with federal databases.

7 percent of downtime is attributed to other technical difficulties.