Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) Program, 2018-2021

The Firearm Inquiry Statistics (FIST) program provides national estimates of the total number of firearm applications received and denied pursuant to the Brady Act and similar state Laws. BJS began the program in 1994. Under this award, REJIS will collect data for calendar years 2018–2021 from federal, state, and local agencies that conduct background checks for firearm transfers and permits. Data will be obtained from agency websites, internal reports, and a survey of over 1,000 state and local checking agencies. The main tasks for this project include reviewing the survey instruments to ensure they are up to date, maintaining the web portal through which respondents complete the survey, maintenance of FIST universe, planning for estimation procedures and weighting strategies, administering the data collection, conducting follow up calls and managing communications as necessary, conducting any necessary non-response bias study, cleaning and analyzing the data, developing publications using the data, and producing a final data file for archival. (CA/NCF)