Since November 30, 1998, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) has denied over 2 million transactions.
In calendar year 2022, there were 131,865 federal denials. These federal denials are those processed by the NICS section for states that are not point-of-contact (POC) states or are partial-POC states. State denial data is not verified by the NICS section and is not included in this figure.
In calendar year 2023, the NICS Section denied a total of 116,587 firearms transactions.
The most common reason for a NICS Section denial in 2023 was being convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term of more than one year (18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1)).