Who are the Prohibited Possessors on the NICS list?

At the end of 2014, there were 12,881,223 people who were legally prohibited from possessing modern firearms on the NICS list of prohibited persons(pdf).  As can be seen from the chart below, obtained from the FBI, nearly half of those prohibited, 49.2%, are illegal aliens. 

The next largest number are those who have been adjudicated with a mental health problem.  177,000 of the recent numbers are veterans  added by the veteran administration.  The total "mental defectives" is over 29% of the prohibited possessors in the NICS data base.  In 2007, only 10.15% of prohibited possessors were listed as mental defectives.  Under the Obama administration, the number of "mental defectives" in the prohibited possessor list has grown from 518,499 at the end of 2007, and 648,120 at the end of 2008, to 3,774,301, an almost sixfold increase of over 3 million people.  The Obama administration has said that it wishes to swell those numbers even more, by adding in Social Security recipients who choose to have their financial affairs attended to by someone else.   Those numbers are reported to be over 4 million.  The Obama administration backed away from that executive action after a strong public reaction.

Then come those convicted of a crime, a felony, or misdemeanor punishable by two years of incarceration, or more.  They amount to almost 15%.  I was surprised by that number.  Only 15% of those on the NICS prohibited possessor list are for felony or serious misdemeanor convictions.  Fugitives from justice account for another 3.6%

Those four categories account for 96.8% of all the people on the database. 

All the rest are relatively minor numbers:

State Prohibitors: .9%  These numbers started being added in to the NICS system in April, 2012.  They include information voluntarily submitted by the states. 

Convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence: .9%  I thought this would be a much larger number. 

Order of Protection/Restraining Order domestic violence: .4%  This number is also much smaller than I thought it would be.  Orders of Protection/Restraining orders are relatively easy to obtain, but they also are often temporary. 

Under Indictment/Information: .3%

Federally denied persons file: .2%

Renounced U.S. Citizenship: .2%

Unlawful user/addicted to a controlled substance: .2%  This one appears to be low, but most people who have been convicted in a court of law are likely picked up in the felony/serious misdemeanor category.

Dishonorable discharge: .1%




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