Attorney General Loretta Lynch told the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday that the Department of Justice performed 3 million gun background checks in December, the most conducted in a single month since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012.
Additionally, Lynch stated that the DOJ’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) performed more than 23 million total gun background checks in fiscal year 2015, reports CNSNews.
“For FY2016, our estimates are that we would need $121 million to run NICS. We’re for an additional $35 million for FY2017, on top of that base figure,” Lynch told the committee. “That would allow us to maintain the additional positions we hope to add this year.”
Furthermore, Lynch stated that DOJ’s “goal is to have the NICS system operational on a 24 hour, 7 day a week basis by the end of this year.”