Urgent Washington Alert:
Following NSSF Action, State e-Check SAFE System Back Online

After NSSF^® demanded answers from Washington State officials last week, authorities have finally notified Washingtonians—via media outlets rather than directly notifying stakeholders—that the state firearm background check system is back online after being down for two weeks.

The Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) does not utilize the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and instead runs its own system called Secure Automated Firearms E-Check (SAFE). The SAFE system had been down and inoperable since November 1 and only went back online Sunday afternoon.

NSSF sent a letter last week to Kateri Candee, AOC’s Director of Firearms Background Division, demanding answers as to why the system was down. “It is essential to highlight that the federal National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) is well established and reliable. Until the SAFE system is restored, we believe the NICS program is a sufficient alternative to maintain both security and access,” NSSF’s Lawrence Keane wrote in the letter. “Please be aware that the inability to conduct lawful transactions may lead to further action, as we seek to protect the rights of our members and their customers.” NSSF has spoken directly with NICS about the outage and urges the state of Washington to conduct background checks through NICS in the future.

State officials are blaming a cyberattack as the cause of the system crashing.

Furthermore, NSSF is calling on Washington State to refund background check fees incurred during this outage and to make whole the businesses that have suffered financially due to this prolonged disruption.