Firearm Due Process Protection Act of 2025
The Firearm Due Process Protection Act of 2025 would tighten and formalize how challenges to NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) records are handled when someone asks to correct their background-check records. It creates a private right of action under 18 U.S.C. 925A to force final disposition of correction requests within 60 days, establishes expedited federal court procedures with a heavy burden on the government to prove ineligibility for firearm possession, and authorizes the awarding of attorney’s fees to prevailing challengers. It also requires annual FBI reporting to Congress on challenges to NICS accuracy and ends with a statement of principles endorsing due process and the right to bear arms. Overall, the bill aims to deliver faster, more accountable processing of NICS corrections and expanded due-process protections for individuals appealing NICS determinations.
Key Points
- 1Enforce 60-day deadline for final disposition of NICS correction requests, with private legal action to compel compliance.
- 2Establish procedural rules for challenges: expedited hearing in federal court within 30 days after filing; the government (the respondent) must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the individual is ineligible to receive or possess a firearm.
- 3Remedies for challengers: authorize the courts to award reasonable attorney fees and litigation costs to substantially prevailing plaintiffs.
- 4Define “substantially prevailed” to include judicial orders, enforceable settlements, or a favorable change in U.S. position (if the claim is not insubstantial).
- 5Annual reporting requirement: FBI Director must report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on (a) challenges received, (b) challenges processed to final disposition, (c) reversals and the reasons for reversals, (d) challenges not reversed and reasons, and (e) average processing time.
- 6Sense of the Congress: affirms gun rights, emphasizes due process under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, asserts that ignoring NICS appeals violates due process, and states that NICS should bear the burden of showing a valid reason for denial.