FFL Delay with a weird twist...

**TRD_RTC** · December 18th, 2011, 08:14 PM

Ok, So friday afternoon around 5:00pm i was at gander and decided to buy a brand new walther P22 to add to my collection. After a long hold because of the holidays i was approved and received my walther.

The next day, I was talking to my buddy and he offered to sell his sw99. He just bought a new ruger .44 and didn't need the smith anymore. as we do the FFL transfer I was put on a delay for some reason. Anyone have any thoughts?

**tsor39** · December 18th, 2011, 08:21 PM

I sat on hold or was transferred to operators all weekend. There must have been a big show somewhere.

**chez323** · December 18th, 2011, 09:04 PM

The Oaks gun show was this weekend and it was a big one............ my buddy bought a gun at the show and it took a while for them to get thru also..........

If you were just approved, I wouldn't worry to much about it..........

Originally Posted by tsor39

I sat on hold or was transferred to operators all weekend. There must have been a big show somewhere.

**kel ruger man** · December 18th, 2011, 09:18 PM

if you are approved the same week at the same place they dont have to call it in i believe, all the gun shops near me are like that.

**Sir Knight** · December 26th, 2011, 12:35 AM

Originally Posted by kel ruger man

if you are approved the same week at the same place they dont have to call it in i believe, all the gun shops near me are like that.

That would be incorrect. The approval number is valid for that date only.

**Xringshooter** · December 26th, 2011, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by TRD_RTC

The next day, I was talking to my buddy and he offered to sell his sw99. He just bought a new ruger .44 and didn't need the smith anymore. as we do the FFL transfer I was put on a delay for some reason. Anyone have any thoughts?

Were you approved that day? If the FFL talked to an PICS operator, what was said? Could the operator have asked him to call back at a later time because the system was having problems? That would be a delay caused by a system problem. What exactly did the FFL tell you? If the system was running slow for some reason, you might have to wait for a while. I have waited on the phone for a hour, while in the automated system before I got an approval number. I never talked to an operator the whole time. There is no "delay" in PICS parlance, only Approved, Denied, Research or Undetermined, although "Research" would be a delay (up to 15 days) as they need to do further investigation before making a determination.

If the system was slow for some reason, or one of the databases that it checks did not respond in the correct time or manner, even though you were approved earlier in the week you could be put into research because of a flag that came up during the check. Until the operator can determine what the cause of a flag was (an operator can get a flag if something does not respond in the manner that it normally should, or a database was unresponsive to the query, or anything like that.) The operator then has to figure out what might be happening before they can give a determination. You can be put into research and an hour later be approved.

And Sir Knight is correct, an approval number is good only until midnight of that business day.