By: José Niño

Gun owners have had enough of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

The NICS program has gained notoriety over the years for producing false positives that ultimately infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners.

In other words, law-abiding citizens get their names mixed and matched with criminals who have similar names. These individuals are then prevented from acquiring guns due to bureaucratic errors.

Generally speaking, individuals can appeal this denial and be on their way to properly exercising their gun rights.

But recent reports indicate the FBI is dragging its feet on the matter.

As a response to this bureaucratic delay, fed-up gun owners are taking the FBI to court.

Stamboulieh Law, PLLC is representing the aggrieved party and has filed suit against the U.S. Attorney General and the FBI for erroneous NICS denials.

This lawsuit follows Congressional Republicans voting for an enormous Omnibus bill containing gun control legislation and fresh expansion of the current NICS system.

Many apologists of the current federal gun control status quo argue bills like Fix-NICS are necessary for streamlining the background check process.

But as any dedicated gun rights activist knows, “streamline” is D.C. speak for expanding government overreach.

In The War on Guns, researcher John Lott debunked the idea that expanded background checks are effective at reducing crime.

Not only have enhanced background checks failed to reduce crime, they also add another layer of red-tape preventing law-abiding citizens from defending themselves. And the laws hit minorities and the impoverished especially hard.

The dangers of false positives could be enhanced with the recent expansion of the NICS background check system. Government is the only entity on the planet that is rewarded with more money and resources after its repeated failures, and the spiderweb of government red-tape only tightens as its power grows, generating more incompetency and inefficiency. It’s the nature of the government beast.

It’s unacceptable that faceless bureaucracies have unchecked power in denying people their right to self-defense.

It’s also disturbing that our rights are at the mercy of incompetent bureaucrats. Why should we continue conceding more rights to corrupt hacks who struggle to keep us safe?

The gun owners who became another set of victims to false positives have legitimate grievances towards the FBI.

We can only hope the individuals who had their purchases revoked receive some type of justice and are finally able to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

José Niño is a Venezuelan-American political activist based in Fort Collins, Colorado.