quote:
As others have stated, the hold is a delay on the background check from NICS. Academy won't sell the gun until they get a "proceed" notification on your background check from NICS, even though the law states that after three days it can be transferred. That's just their store policy. Usually takes about 3-5 business days but it can take up to 30 for NICS to give a response.

It's not really "three days" since there are a lot of days that do not count. The NICS can also come back with a resolution after the 30 days. It my experience it seems the "further review" last indefintely. I have received responses from NICS on background checks that were over 8 months old. The reason why Academy says up to 30 days is because that is when the background check form you filled out expires and a gun can no longer be transferred using that form so a new one is required. I'd probbaly guess somewhere around 50% of delays receive final responses while the remaining 50% stay in what is known as an "open" status. There are a lot of rumors of why people get delayed from TWIC cards to secret clearence etc. The NICS database is not a collection of everyone, it is a database of potentially prohibited people. So, a delay or denial means that you matched up closely or exactly with a potentially prohibited person (whether it is actually you or not). My speculation is that most delays that never get a response are due to missing dispositions which the FBI has to request from the responsible clerk of court. These often go unfilled due to lack of staffing at the clerks office or non exsistence of dispositions because the charges were dropped, deferred, lack of reporting from one agency to another, etc. This is what people are referring to when they talk about the deficiency of the NICS system and it's lack of information. Anyway, that is pure speculation on my part. If you ever want to know for sure why you always get delayed the only way to know the real answer is to file a NICS appeal. You will need the NICS Transaction Number (known as the NTN) from your background check, which you can obtain from the FFL who ran it. Once you have obtained that you can start here to file the appeal: NICS Appeal. This will not always get rid of the delay, but it will likely satisfy your curiosity. As previously mentioned, the best thing a person who always gets delayed can do, your state laws may vary, is get a concealled carry permit. This will allow you to get the gun the same day, state laws may vary. No more worrying about if you will get a delay or if the NICS system is down, which is not uncommon. Back to the 3 days thing, here is when a gun can be, but the FFL is not obligated to, transfer a firearm without hearing back from NICS:

Barring any holidays during the week:
Delayed response on --> Can legally be transferred

Monday --> Friday
Tuesday --> Saturday
Wednesday --> Tuesday
Thursday --> Wednesday
Friday --> Thursday
Saturday --> Thursday
Sunday --> Thursday