Washington State Patrol Resumes Gun Background Checks

After much delay and hullabaloo, the Washington State Patrol has resumed firearm background checks. Score one for gun enthusiasts!

A two-week pause on background checks was lifted Sunday afternoon. According to WSP Sgt. Jermaine Walker, the AOC's data repository is back in sync with the State Patrol's Secure Automated Firearms E-Check.

Earlier this month, Washington state courts were thrown askew by a cyber intruder. Unauthorized activity in computer systems prompted a systemwide shutdown. Prospective gun buyers were especially perturbed and not without reason.

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But the restoration of online resources means that background checks can continue as per usual.

The system outage was crippling indeed, but the State Patrol tried to maintain some semblance of normalcy. The agency deserves credit for thinking ahead and completing certain tasks that didn't require coordination with the courts. Walker explains the rationale for this: "Once data services were regained, delayed background checks could be completely quickly."

"In the first 8 hours after service was restored, WSP personnel were able to complete over 6,500 of the backlogged checks and the work will continue this week to bring the system back to its regular cadence of operations."

On any given business day, the State Patrol receives a mind-boggling volume of background check requests: 700.