Earlier this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a final rule that will enable federal firearms licensees (FFLs) — gun manufacturers, importers, and dealers — to use the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to conduct background checks on any employee or contractor who handles firearms as part of their duties to ensure that they are not prohibited from possessing firearms. Beginning on November 27, 2026, FFLs will have the option to use NICS to conduct background checks on their employees which, as the FBI explains, “can assist in making informed determinations about whether that person should have employment duties that may involve access to firearms, ammunition, or their manufacturing components.”
This final rule implements a provision in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that was enacted in 2022 and directed the Department of Justice to “promulgate regulations allowing licensees to use the national instant criminal background check system established under this section for purposes of voluntarily conducting an employment background check relating to a current or prospective employee.”
Gun Store “Insiders” Aid Robberies and Thefts
FFLs have a basic responsibility to ensure that employees who have access to or regularly handle firearms and ammunition are not prohibited from gun possession under federal or state law. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry’s trade association, has long advised FFLs to consider conducting background checks on employees (though it has made the odd decision to delete many of those public-facing materials). For example, in a 2017 article, the NSSF wrote that “employee background checks can be considered an essential component of your store’s overall security planning,” and that a “security background check is critical to ensuring your prospective employee has not had any prior arrests or convictions for property crimes including larceny, burglary or robbery.” According to the NSSF, “Many retail theft and robbery investigations show that ‘insiders’ have often assisted in the execution or planning of such crimes.”
In a similar article in 2016, the NSSF encouraged annual background checks on employees, asserting that “[c]hecking once is not enough.” A number of states require FFLs to conduct background checks on employees.
The NSSF applauded the final rule the day before it was published, characterizing it as “the culmination of a long-sought, NSSF-led effort to improve firearm industry and community safety” and “a major industry priority.”
FREE BACKGROUND CHECKS FOR FFLs
Prior to the implementation of this final rule, NICS could only be used by FFLs to conduct background checks on prospective gun purchasers. As a result, FFLs who wished to conduct background checks on current or prospective employees had to use different background check services or methods to determine whether they were prohibited from gun possession and therefore ineligible to handle firearms as part of their job duties.
With this final rule, FFLs will now have the ability to initiate a background check through NICS, making it much easier to accurately vet current and prospective employees. As the FBI explains, not only does this rule provide an administrative benefit to FFLs, but it “will also benefit public safety by implementing another mechanism that can keep more prohibited persons from being placed in positions that would otherwise afford them with access to firearms, ammunition, or their manufacturing components.”
With this change, it should now become an industry standard for all FFLs to use NICS to conduct pre-employment and annual background checks on employees who have access to firearms and ammunition.