Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Servo
Stop there. The CCW exempts you from the NICS check, but you still have to do a 4473. Whoever told you otherwise is wrong.
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I think he’s a little confused as to what the 4473 is. OP, there is no such thing as a “4473 check”. I think you’re conflating the NICS check with the 4473. The 4473 is the federal paperwork required when receiving a firearm from a dealer. There is no (legal) way to skip this paperwork, even with a carry permit.
As to your overall question, it sounds like you just want to know how long it takes to have your records updated into NICS? I can’t tell you that, but I can tell you that I’ve had several customers in a similar situation as yours who waited months, or even years, after getting their record expunged and still got denied on their NICS check. Also, in most cases the ones who got a proceed still had to go though a delay period. But this is simply my personal experience working at gun stores, you might be just fine.
I think you have two main options here: first, consult a lawyer and make sure everything is cleared up the best you can. Or second — if you’re absolutely sure things have been done properly on your end — just try to buy a gun. You can’t “test” the NICS system, so it would have to be in conjunction with buying a gun. Despite what some people at gun shops might tell you, t’s not illegal to get denied on a NICS check, the crime is being a prohibited person and lying about it on the 4473 (and any corresponding state paperwork, if applicable). So if things have truly been cleared up in the court system and you get erroneously denied, then you haven’t done anything wrong. But if it turns out that things haven’t been properly cleared up, then you could be in some legal trouble, which is why I highly recommend sucking it up and spending the money on a lawyer.
Whether or not you go the lawyer route, when you first try to buy a gun you need to make sure you’re buying from a dealer that won’t charge you a restocking fee if you’re denied. Most denials start with delays, and some dealers will charge you for the gun if you want them to hold it during a delay. Then if you’re denied they’ll refund your money minus a restocking fee (sometimes a flat charge, sometimes a percentage). This is to keep people from using gun shops to test the NICS system when they have no intention of actually buying a gun.
Also, in the first state where I worked (WA) the police didn’t care about denials. But here in PA they usually follow up on them. In PA there is a state point-of-contact for NICS (called PICS), so sometimes the police will even come to a shop during the pending PICS check and arrest the customer if he’s flagged in their system. I don’t know how Ohio works, but if someone in your situation tried to buy a gun here, there’s a possibility that he could attract unwanted police attention if it turned out things hadn’t been properly cleared up in the system.
EDIT: I suppose your third option is to get a carry permit, which I believe lets you skip the NICS check in Ohio when buying a gun. But to get the permit still requires a background check, and I don’t know how big of a deal it is if you fail the check for a carry permit in Ohio. So I still think your best bet is to get a lawyer to help you with all of this.