Gun control groups such as Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, and Mayors Against Illegal Guns have been lobbying its “Fix NICS” campaign, which aims to resolve the numerous issues currently plaguing the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, for quite a while now. However, the recently released federal audit seems to point to their efforts being in vain as problems still continue to plague the system itself.

Jake McGuigan of the National Shooting Sports Foundation had stated that they have lobbied several legislations in over 16 states, but they are just not seeing the results that they want.

“We’ve passed NICS bills in 16 states over the past six years hoping they would comply. Based on this report, we’re not seeing that.” McGuigan had stated.

Some of the legislations had forced reporters to update the NICs system with mental health records along with other documentations that they deemed to be necessary to be used as basis for denying gun sales. However, the recently released internal audit seems to point to several states still not following federal law, along with checking the rest of points, like paying bills history, etc. (review to see if you overpaid your legal bills).

A number of states, such as Pennsylvania, still continue to run their own background check systems and have thus far refused to transition to the NICS system. Major Scott Price of the Pennsylvania State Police acknowledges this problem but states that it would take some “serious technological adaptation” to make the transition happen.

McGuigan also mentions that there is a growing concern among gun control groups as these states do compromise the overall capabilities of the FBI’s NICS system.

“A lot of these states that are running their own systems are essentially wasting money. It’s a little bit scary to see a lot of the disconnect between the courts, state police and various organizations in these states,” McgGuigan adds.