FYI: (Note: This is not the first time this has happened)

Source: Rocky Mountain News, August 31, 1999, page 21A

COMPUTER GLITCH HALTS GUN SALES FOR SEVEN HOURS

By Kevin Vaughan (News Staff Writer)

A glitch in an FBI computer brought a halt to gun sales in Colorado Saturday.

The problem in the FBI's National Insta-Check System, which lasted about seven hours, stopped background checks performed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

And with no background checks, there were no gun sales.

"I think the gun dealers were frustrated," CBI inspector Pete Mang said.

Federal law requires background checks for all gun sales conducted by licensed dealers.

In Colorado, the CBI runs computer queries on state and national databases when checking the background of a prospective gun buyers. The FBI database is one of those the CBI checks.

"Nobody could get approvals," said Denver gun collector Daniel King. "They couldn't sell anything."

King had tried to retrieve a gun he owns from a pawn shop Satruday but spent two frustrating hours waiting for a background check that never came.

Mang said 220 background checks could not be performed.

-- kalani & katiuska (kalani_hanohano@hotmail.com), August 31, 1999