Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 2024 ‘Background Check Procedures in New Hampshire.’ Background Checks. San Francisco, CA: Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. 29 March

Relevant contents

Background Checks in New Hampshire

Federal law requires federally licensed firearms dealers (but not private sellers) to initiate a background check on the purchaser prior to sale of a firearm. Federal law provides states with the option of serving as a state "point of contact" and conducting their own background checks using state, as well as federal, records and databases, or having the checks performed by the FBI using only the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System ("NICS") database. (Note that state files are not always included in the federal database.)

New Hampshire is a "partial point of contact" state for NICS. New Hampshire law authorizes, but does not require, the New Hampshire Department of Safety ("DOS") to act as a point of contact for NICS. DOS has chosen to act as a point of contact for handgun sales, but not long gun sales. This means that, in New Hampshire, firearms dealers selling handguns must initiate the background check required by federal law by contacting DOS, but firearm dealers selling long guns must initiate the background check required by federal law by contacting the FBI directly…

New Hampshire does not require private sellers (sellers who are not licensed dealers) to initiate a background check when transferring a firearm…

[Editor's note: The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence regularly updates its webpages with new data as US gun regulation evolves state by state. For the most up-to-date information on US gun laws, please refer to the Giffords URL below]

ID: Q6924

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