A letter sent last Friday by this correspondent to House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman Rep. James Comer asks the committee to have Attorney General Merrick Garland and Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray explain where the FBI is delegated the authority to allow the National Instant Background Check System (NICS) to be used to process New York State ammunition transfers.

The inquiry is being made because the FBI’s “Firearms Checks (NICS)” page, the DOJ’s NICS rules for FFLs and POCs (Point of Contact states), “Public Law 110–180, An Act To improve the National Instant Criminal Background Check System”, and the “Fix NICS Act” address firearm transfers. There is no mention of “ammunition.”

Can NICS be used for purposes for which it is not federally authorized?

To find out, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FBI in March for documents and records to clarify authority and determine decision-making (and decision-makers) authorizing the use of NICS for New York State ammunition background checks.

In June, instead of producing what was asked for, the FBI returned copies of two nonresponsive Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) sections anyone can pull off the internet. Neither even remotely address the scope of the request.

“It’s clear that the FBI has no intention of responding, which makes fair another question,” I observed. “Why?”

The final straw came this Tuesday, when my attorney Stephen Stamboulieh, received a response from DOJ’s Administrative Appeals Staff Chief Christina Troiani in which she told him, “After carefully considering your appeal, I am affirming the FBI’s action on your client’s request… I have determined that the FBI’s response was correct and that it conducted an adequate, reasonable search for responsive records subject to the FOIA.”

To paraphrase: We’re not going to tell you. Deal with it.

I could file a lawsuit, and that option remains open, but it would not only require money and effort to fund and pursue, and there is every indication we would be stonewalled with no end in sight. Another choice would be to give it to the people whose job it is to make sure government agencies operate within the law, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

Unlike FOIA requests, which can ask for records, the committee can ask questions and has subpoena power to cut through to the chase and get them answered. It also doesn’t hurt that, per the National Rifle Association,  Chairman James Comer “a solid record of leadership in support of the Second Amendment,” so he should be especially interested in making sure no agency is assigning itself infringement powers.

And to be clear: Like fighting the bump stock ban wasn’t about bump stocks, this isn’t about ammunition. This is about self-delegating power and brings to mind nothing so much as the famous painting of Napoleon crowning himself.

My letter to Rep. Comer, which went out today via return receipt mail, is embedded below. I begin by introducing myself to him so that he can see I’ve worked with Oversight before, on Operation Fast and Furious, and the information I gave them then panned out into one of the committee’s major areas of focus for years.

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.