As power-hungry bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. continue to demonize law-abiding Americans and wrongfully restrict their Second Amendment Rights, we are standing up to defend them.

Earlier last week, we reintroduced our Firearm Due Process Protection Act, with more than a dozen of our Republican colleagues signing on in support. This legislation increases congressional oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and provides legal recourse for law-abiding Americans who were improperly denied the ability to legally purchase a firearm due to administrative errors and inconsistencies in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

Every year, thousands of law-abiding Americans are wrongfully prohibited from exercising their constitutional right to own a firearm, not because they are criminals, but because of bureaucratic incompetence. Despite the Fix NICS Act requiring a 60-day deadline for appeals, the process remains frustrating and arduous, with no mechanism in place to enforce this deadline. Importantly, if a law-abiding American is wrongfully denied their right to a firearm, and NICS does not follow through on its 60-day appeal deadline, all information relating to the appeal is destroyed after 90 days and the individual must restart the appeals process from square one.

Our legislation reaffirms the Fix NICS Act’s 60-day deadline for federal officials to come to a determination on an appeal and reforms the current appeals process by giving individuals the right to seek a court judgment to correct erroneous information if the FBI does not act on an appeal within the deadline. It also increases congressional oversight of the FBI by requiring them to submit statistics regarding the total number of appeals, the total number that were overturned, and the reasons they were overturned or upheld to Congress each year.

In 2022 alone, nearly 7,500 law-abiding Americans were wrongfully denied a firearm because of an error in the NICS system, such as mismatched fingerprints or an inaccurate criminal record. Our legislation offers crucial protection for individuals who face these issues.

Our Second Amendment rights are foundational to our way of life as Minnesotans and our shared identity as Americans. As Americans continue to face bureaucratic issues in exercising their Second Amendment rights, rest assured that we will continue our unwavering support of their preservation.

If our office can ever be helpful to you or your family, please do not hesitate to reach out to our office in Otsego at (763) 241-6848 or Chaska at (952) 262-2999.