In October, the FBI stopped processing denial appeals on gun background checks because the bureau's background check examiners were overwhelmed by the number of Americans attempting to buy guns, reported USA Today.
The decision means that 7,100 appeals will indefinitely remain backlogged, which the National Rifle Association said is tantamount to halting the right to due process for the prospective gun buyers who have been denied the right to purchase a gun and are currently appealing the decision.
FBI Assistant Director Stephen Morris told USA Today that all 70 of the bureau's appeal examiners have been temporarily reassigned to help catch up on the surge of background check applications that came in the wake of recent mass shootings and calls for gun control regulation.
The agency even had to suspend annual leave for the more than 400 employees who work at the National Instant Criminal Background Check System's (NICS) facility in West Virginia.
"The last several months, we've kind of found ourselves in a perfect storm," Morris said.
The storm was brought on by the terrorist attacks in Paris in November followed by the December terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., along with President Obama's announced executive order that will expand background checks for gun buyers.
As Americans rushed to buy guns, NICS processed more than 2.2 million background checks in November and a record 3.3 million in December. At the end of 2015, the NICS had processed more than 23.1 million background checks, 10.4 percent more than the previous year, but per the FBI's NICS website, it appears that as of mid-September, the bureau was still processing appeals received in June 2015.
"As much as the Brady Campaign, Bloomberg's Everytown, and the Obama administration contend that submitting oneself to the FBI's NICS is a fast and simple process that does not significantly burden lawful firearms transferees, the fact is that for many of Americans that simply isn't true," the NRA wrote.
Gun Owners of America executive director emeritus Larry Pratt told Breitbart that the FBI's decision to stop processing background check appeals shows that "background checks are not constitutional."
"When a fundamentally protected right - like the Second Amendment - is placed in the hands of the government, they will decide whether or not a sale can be made, and who can own, and things like that, then we must realize we have all the sudden given away the store," he said. "And look what happens under an administration like that of Obama; you give him an inch and he takes a mile."
