Proposed Florida bill to end background check delays leaves gun safety advocates worried

JACKSONVILLE, Fla — A bill filed ahead of the upcoming Florida legislative session could potentially allow people to obtain firearms either before three-day waiting period expires or before their background check clears, undoing a key piece of the gun safety legislation passed after the Parkland Shooting.

Prior to that legislation the three-day waiting period only applied to handgun sales, but it now applies to the sale of all firearms.

If the new legislation were to pass as currently written people would be able to skip the wait period if their background check comes back clean before the wait period expires.

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But it’s the opposite scenario that has gun safety advocates most worried.

Current law states delivery of a firearm cannot occur until after the three-day wait period or completion of a background check, whichever occurs later.

By changing the word later to earlier, the new legislation would allow someone to obtain a firearm as soon as the three-day wait period is over, whether their background check has cleared or not.

Gun safety advocates like Katie Hathaway with Moms Demand Action fear that will create opportunities for people who aren’t allowed to have firearms to get ahold of them.

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“Background checks are a vital tool to help keep guns out of the hands of people who might harm themselves or others. So, this is a very dangerous bill,” said Hathaway.

But the bill sponsor State Representative Dr. Joel Rudman (R-Navarre) argued the current law has created burdensome delays for Floridians who do have the right to own a gun.

“We had a list delivered to us of over 50 names of people, again through no fault of their own, who had been waiting two years to pass their background check,” said Rudman.

Ziadeh Farhat, owner of Green Acres Sporting Goods, told Action News Jax he’s noticed extended delays have become more common since the passage of the 2018 law.

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“One guy’s might come back in a week and one guy’s might come back in six months and there’s no rhyme or reason to it,” said Farhat.

Farhat said he’d at the very least like to see a requirement for background checks to be completed in a timely fashion.

“Nine times out of ten or even more than that it was gonna come back as an approval and normally whatever they’re looking at is such a minor thing, that’s it’s not anything that would normally disqualify somebody from buying a gun,” said Farhat.

But Hathaway argued the delays aren’t always arbitrary.

“The ones that take longer than three business days, they’re four times more likely to be rejected,” said Hathaway.

Rudman said it’s not his intent to do away with the waiting period or create a loophole around background checks.

He explained his legislation will likely see changes as it moves through the legislature.

“In statute we’re going to demand that they get their work done within three business days. I don’t think that’s asking too much,” said Rudman.

Farhat and Rudman both said prior to 2018, it was up to the discretion of gun dealers whether to deliver a firearm if a background check was stuck pending for an extended period of time.

If the background check came back with a flag, ATF would be notified and tasked with confiscating the gun from the purchaser.

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