Representative Thomas Massie's NICS Data Reporting Act, H.R. 2267, would require the DOJ and FBI to publicly disclose demographic breakdowns of federal firearm purchase denials — including how often those denials are overturned on appeal — in a bid to expose the full scale of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System's false-positive problem. AmmoLand reported on the bill's progress Tuesday, May 12, as a concurrent Bearing Arms column catalogued recent cases of lawful citizens ensnared by stale database records.

The bill, which the House Judiciary Committee passed unanimously, would mandate annual reporting on the race, ethnicity, sex, age, and income of individuals whose purchases were denied and subsequently appealed. The data would, for the first time, let Congress and the public quantify how often NICS generates false positives — and whether the burden falls disproportionately on any group. In the most recent year with available data, NICS issued 116,587 firearm purchase denials but produced only 14 federal indictments and five convictions, according to AmmoLand. Critics argue that disparity means the overwhelming majority of denials flag people who are not actually prohibited from owning a firearm.

A Martin County, Florida case illustrates what goes wrong when federal records lag behind state court dispositions. William Michael Brewer visited a Jensen Beach gun store to purchase a firearm and was denied through the background check system. Martin County Sheriff's deputies responded after the denial alert and found that Brewer's FBI National Crime Information Center record showed an old Kentucky arrest as a felony — even though Kentucky courts had reduced the charge to a misdemeanor years earlier. Brewer spent 14 days in jail before prosecutors dropped the case after receiving certified Kentucky court documents. He has since sued the Martin County Sheriff's Office for false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, according to WPTV.

The Crime Prevention Research Center, whose analysis on NICS false positives substantially informed H.R. 2267, has documented that mistaken denials fall disproportionately on Black and Hispanic males — a civil-rights dimension Massie has highlighted when making the case for the legislation. The bill would require DOJ and FBI to publish those breakdowns in annual reports accessible to Congress and the public.

The NICS system has been a persistent concern for gun-rights advocates who argue the federal government uses it not as a targeted prohibition tool but as a sweeping general-purpose disqualifier — running hundreds of thousands of checks that end in denial but result in almost no prosecutions. H.R. 2267 does not change NICS's denial criteria; it only requires public transparency about outcomes, a framing that attracted bipartisan support in committee from members focused on civil liberties as well as Second Amendment rights.

H.R. 2267 awaits a full House floor vote. Whether the Senate Judiciary Committee takes up a companion measure will determine the bill's path to the president's desk before the 119th Congress adjourns.