A “catastrophic hardware failure” within the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services led to the transfer of 54 firearms without background checks.

Firearms can be legally transferred to customers after a mandatory seven-day waiting period, even if the background investigation wasn’t completed. As a result, employees in the Maryland State Police Licensing Division must track down the 54 firearms transferred and the applications each customer submitted to complete the process.

Guns sales have been booming nationwide during the pandemic. The FBI says its system completed more than 29,000 Maryland background checks in March, for instance, nearly doubleMarch 2019. Background checks cannot be equated directly to gun sales, but they are often used as a proxy.

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