Gun sales surge in Colorado; CBI to make changes to address high volume of background checks

The number of gun sales this year in Colorado is about double compared to the same time period last year, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

With more than 14,000 background checks for firearms transfers received last week, the CBI is implementing a few changes to meet the demand for firearms. The CBI is hoping to shorten the delay with the abundance of requests. There were about 7,000 background checks in the same timeframe back in 2019.

"While the turnaround time remains within the three business day period required through federal regulations, the current wait time is approaching two days," CBI wrote in a release on Tuesday. "Prior to this recent surge, the wait times for firearms background checks for Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) and their customers ranged between five and eight minutes."

Effective immediately, CBI InstaCheck has implemented the following changes to address the high volume of background check requests for firearms transfers:

- Expanding internal InstaCheck hours of operation. (Public hours of operation remain 9 a.m.-9 p.m.; however, examiners are working outside of those hours to reduce the queue.)

- Cross-training specialized CBI staff members to assist in the background check process off-site to help ensure social distancing related to COVID-19.

- Retasking employees to InstaCheck who had recently accepted new assignments in other CBI sections.

- Making some modifications to the submission process for background checks.