Close the Charleston Loophole

What does this solve?

Under federal law, gun purchases may move forward by default after three business days—even if a background check has not been completed. While more than 90 percent of federal background checks are completed in minutes, those that take longer than three business days are four times as likely to be denied.

In 2015, the white supremacist who shot and killed nine Black worshipers at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was able to purchase a gun because of a dangerous loophole in the background check system. He was legally prohibited from having a firearm, but was able to complete the purchase because his background check was not completed within three business days.¹

Firearm sales should not be permitted to move forward until a background check on the prospective purchaser has been completed.

Which states have closed or limited the Charleston Loophole?

0 states have adopted this policy

Closing this loophole would ensure that no firearm is sold with an incomplete background check.

Undeniable: How Long-Standing Loopholes in the Background Check System Have Been Exacerbated by COVID-19 Report

While federal law requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks on all prospective gun buyers, due to an NRA-backed loophole in the 1993 Brady Bill, gun sales can proceed by default after three business days even though law enforcement has up to 90 days to conduct a background check.¹

Most background checks are completed on the spot, but every year hundreds of thousands of checks take longer than three business days.² Among the checks that the FBI is able to resolve before the 90-day deadline, more than 5 percent each year are found to have resulted in illegal sales.³ It is likely many more prohibited purchasers get their hands on a gun because of this loophole, but there is no way to know definitively how many because the records for more than 200,000 background checks that were not completed within 90 days are deleted from the system each year.⁴

This loophole presents a special danger for domestic violence victims. In its 2016 report, the Government Accountability Office found that background checks involving domestic violence flags take longer to resolve.⁵ Domestic violence prohibitions involve multiple criteria that often require significant investigation and coordination with local law enforcement. For example, because federal law only prohibits abusers from buying a firearm if they were married to or were a current or recent former dating partner⁶ of their victims (or if they shared a child or a home), a background check may require an investigation into the relationship between the parties. Between 2006 and 2015,⁷ it took the FBI more than three business days to determine 30 percent of denials based on misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence. That means licensed dealers were legally authorized under federal law to transfer guns to 18,000 people who were prohibited because of convictions for misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence simply because their background checks took longer than three days.⁸

Congress can close the Charleston loophole by prohibiting firearm sales from moving forward unless a background check on the prospective purchaser has been completed. In the absence of a federal law, states can pass laws to give authorities longer than three business days to complete a check.

By the numbers

Background checks delayed more than 3 business days are 4 times more likely to result in a denial determination.

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>200,000

More than 200,000 background checks take longer than three business days every year.

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1 in 4

Only about a quarter of all background checks that take longer than three business days are completed within the 90-day deadline to determine if a sale should have occurred or not.

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The loophole is insignificant because 97 percent of all background checks are completed within three business days.

Background checks delayed more than three business days are four more likely to be denied.¹ This means that the loophole results in prohibited persons obtaining firearms. Between January and mid-November, 2020, the FBI had flagged nearly 6,000 gun sales because a purchaser who could not legally possess a firearm was able to buy one because of the Charleston loophole—more than in any other entire calendar year.

Featured Resources

How COVID-19 Has Made a Federal Background Check Loophole Even Deadlier

More background checks were run in March 2020 than at any other time since the creation of the background check system.

Fact Sheet

Undeniable: How Long-Standing Loopholes in the Background Check System Have Been Exacerbated by COVID-19

Loopholes must be addressed to ensure that guns are not sold without a completed background check.

Report

Update Background Check Laws

Updating federal and state laws to require background checks on all gun sales is a common-sense way to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Fact Sheet