Washington State Patrol is once again able to process the purchase of firearms after a statewide system shutdown took their verification system offline.
On Sunday, WSP said the Administration Office of the Courts (AOC) system had been reconnected to SAFE (Second Amendment Firearm E-Check), the online system used to verify the legal purchase of firearms in Washington.
After the AOC system went down on November 4, thousands of background checks for firearm purchases were halted . WSP said on Sunday the backlogged transactions are now processing.
“WSP Firearms Background staff will take this next week to get caught up. It will take a while to navigate all outstanding checks, but we will work them as quickly as we safely and accurately can. We are cognizant of the public’s legal rights to own, purchase and sell firearms and will continue to do our best to mitigate the impacts of the recent system outage as expeditiously as the law, safety and capacity will allow,” said WSP Communication Director, Chris Loftis.