Washington, December 7 (RHC)-- In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued an order for the seizure of more than 4,000 guns that are currently in the hands of people who are ineligible to own weapons.  According to a report published by the newspaper USA Today, many of the buyers had criminal records, mental health problems or other issues that would have initially disqualified them from making the purchases. 

"These are people who shouldn't have weapons in the first place, and it just takes one to do something that could have tragic consequences," David Chipman, a former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) official said.  The ATF is the agency tasked with seizing weapons from prospective owners who failed checks.  A loophole in the background check system allows people to purchase guns if a check is not completed within three days. 

The order is the largest gun retrieval requests in a decade, up from 2,892 last year.  Federal law generally allows all gun purchase upon a thorough background check being conducted by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) within 72 hours of the transaction. 

Earlier this month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions recommended a “comprehensive review” of the NICS practices after a military veteran, Devin Patrick Kelley, used an illegally purchased rifle to take the lives of 26 people and injure 20 others at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas on November 5th.  Officials from the U.S. Air Force admitted an error on their part, disclosing that they neglected to transmit Kelley's court-martial file to the FBI.  The Air Force has said that “similar reporting lapses occurred at other locations,” within the force, USA Today reported. 

Following an FBI review, the ATF was instructed to retrieve the thousands of guns that had been purchased without proper authorization, over the past year.  The number of gun buyers increased significantly over Black Friday weekend -- the last weekend of November -- and the FBI received a record 203,086 requests for background checks in a single day.