What PICS Research means

[Xringshooter]

Hope this helps clear things up.

This is directly from the PSP: (Anything in italics I added for clarification)

Research Response
Certain situations will prevent a background check from being approved or denied at the time of the initial call. Possible circumstances which may result in a transaction being delayed for research include: Potentially prohibiting records that require additional information or clarification, poor response time on a particular database or a database that is temporarily out of service. If this condition occurs, you (the FFL calling the PICS) will be informed that the background check cannot be completed at this time and that more research must be done before a final determination can be made. The FFL should then inform the customer of the situation.

Under research status, the firearm dealer cannot let the prospective purchaser or transferee take possession of any firearm. It should be noted that every effort is made to complete research on an individual as soon as possible. Immediately upon completion of the research, the operator is required to call the dealer to give the final decision. It may take as long as 15 days for an operator to obtain the information needed to provide a final decision.

A Pennsylvania firearm dealer cannot transfer a firearm to a non-licensee until the receive an approval number from a PICS representative.


Researched Approvals
As soon as an operator determines that an individual placed in research may be approved they will contact the dealer. Once an approval number is given to a dealer it is only good until the close of business on the day it is given. In most case, the customer is no longer in the store so the dealer is given the option to call back for the approval number after he has contacted the customer. Under these circumstances, the approval number will be held a maximum of one week. Therefore, if a dealer is called Monday with an approval, the number will be held until midnight the following Monday. If the dealer is unable to contact the customer within this time frame, a new background check must be initiated.

[Xringshooter]

Mods, Can this be made into a sticky? It explains why someone would be put into research even if they had bought previously with no problems. Also tells what happens if the research comes back approved.

If it is made into a sticky then this note can be deleted if needed.

[markheck1]

Thanks Great Info!