Nevada

In Point of Contract (POC) states, firearm purchase background checks go through state or local authorities, rather than the FBI’s NICS system.  These states are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, Oregon, Utah, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Illinois, Nevada  and New York. 

On August 24, a ransomware attack took down Nevada’s POC system.  Federal Firearm Licensee (FFL) dealers in Nevada were unable to process firearm transfers for most customers until September 14th.  (That’s three weeks.)

Apparently, many of the state’s computer systems are integrated as this also impacted the DMV, Medicaid, SNAP, and WIC benefits. 

When the state’s system went offline, so did the ability to run POC background checks. Without clearance, most firearm sales could not legally be completed.  Nevadans with a valid Concealed Carry Permit (CCP) could take possession of purchased firearms; a CCP serves as an alternative form of clearance under Nevada state law.  All other sold guns piled up in gun shops waiting for state background checks.  And how many sales were lost? This has had a serious impact on the financial health of many gun shops.

It has also put people at risk.  Individuals who wanted to purchase a gun for the first time weren’t likely to have a CCP.  If these non CCP people wanted a gun to be protected from abuse, a stalker, gang violence in the neighborhood, etc. well…too bad.

Governor Joe Lombardo was asked to issue an emergency declaration that would allow FFLs to submit their background checks directly to the NICS System.  The governor never replied, which is a polite way of saying, “Forget it!”  (We New Yorkers can anticipate a similar reply from Governor Hochul when this happens in New York State.)

The Nevada Office of Emergency Management admits that: “hackers exfiltrated data” during the attack. What a relief!  The hackers did not steal any data, they only “exfiltrated” the data which means they copied information out of state systems and took it off-site…Oh wait, isn’t that stealing?

Governor Lombardo said that residents’ personal information had not been compromised.  That’s encouraging since we New Yorkers know that governors never lie! 

But just in case, Lombardo also said: “If investigators eventually discover otherwise, we will follow Nevada strict statutes about personal data breaches by notifying any affected individuals promptly and providing resources to help protect them.”

If data was “exfiltrated” and includes firearms-related information, this breach could expose the identities and addresses of law-abiding Nevada gun owners, which would identify households most likely to contain firearms. If Nevada gun owner data is now in the hands of criminals…

Could this happen in New York State since we are also a POC state?

Remember how smoothly establishing the NYS system went?  (Sarcasm intended.) 

NY State has been losing gun shops and a three-week shut down would probably put many more out of business.  Would Kathy Hochul and the NY Legislature feel bad about that?  FFL’s in NY State must be hyperventilating when they think about their businesses’ future being dependent on the quality of security in the NY State computer network.