imported post
Ok I got in touch with Thumper this evening, this is the scoop.... It did have to do with Academy and their 30 day policy and also they had a sale running on a specific S&W 40 for $299, and a little to do with my friends ignorance of the "NICS system" (thanks Fed's).
My friend saw the sale price and wanted a specific gun from Academy. He said the check came back as denied, so he went home to wait for a reply. Many weeks later (I don't know why), when he got back to the Academy, they told him it had been more than 30 days and they needed to run the check from the beginning. After the second check comes back delay, he is informed their company policy is "not to proceed after the 3 day wait, until the NICS check has come back as proceed and they will wait up to 30 days for a reply from NICS, then they throw out the results and start over if the customer wants to try again". IMHO this would drive away business for most gun shops/ brokers , but maybe Academy is big enough to afford to error on the safe side than to make that $$$.
Thumper asked for a manager, who still agreed to honor the sale price, if he could get a 'proceed' cleared from the check and directed him to the NICS HANDBOOK they had at the store. This is when the real education on "the system" began.
Thumper has had several conversations by phone to the NICS/FBI/ATF or whoever "THEY" are. "They" told him that they couldn't give him his "rap sheet" on a delay, only a DENY. They also explained to him that he could just wait the 3 days and go back to the broker (oh just a little corporate policy problem there). They also explained that he could obtain a "federal ID" of sorts that would prevent this from happening again. He has gotten written word back from "THEM" that they have received his submitted fingerprints and are "working on it"
Well what do ya think of that!