New Federal Bill Demands States Cover 75% of Gun Background Check System Costs and Imposes 10-Day Approval Window

The newly proposed Background Check Point of Contact Act of 2025 is looking to standardize how states handle firearm background checks, but it comes with a hefty price tag for state governments and new rules for buyers and sellers.

The New Mandate: Centralized Checks and a 10-Day Clock

The core of this bill is Section 3, which requires states to set up or maintain a "point-of-contact" system. Essentially, every federally licensed firearms dealer (FFL) in that state would have to run their background checks through this state system, not just the federal NICS system. The big procedural change? No sale or transfer can be finalized until this state system issues an approval number. And here’s the kicker: that approval number must be issued within 10 days of starting the process. If 10 days pass without an approval, the sale is blocked because the system couldn’t confirm legality.

For a small-town gun shop owner, this means a new layer of compliance and potentially mandatory delays. For a buyer, this effectively sets up a 10-day approval window that functions much like a waiting period. If you need a firearm quickly for hunting season or personal protection, you're now entirely dependent on the efficiency of the state’s new system. If the system is slow or the state is understaffed, you’re waiting until Day 10, or potentially longer if the system is down.

The State Budget Hit: A 75% Cost Share

While the bill (Section 2) establishes a grant program run by the Attorney General, offering up to $1 million annually per state to set up these systems, it’s far from a free lunch. The federal government will only cover a maximum of 25 percent of the total cost of setting up and running the system. This means state governments are on the hook for at least 75% of the expenses. With $10 million authorized annually for the entire program, the total federal contribution is capped, forcing states to dig deep into their own budgets to comply with this federal mandate. This is a significant financial burden that will likely be passed on to taxpayers through state taxes or cuts to other programs.

Denials, Appeals, and FBI Oversight

Section 3 also tightens up the process for denied sales. If the system fails to issue an approval number, the state must provide a formal appeal process. Crucially, the burden of proof is placed on the state to show why the denial was necessary. This is good news for someone who gets erroneously flagged—like having a common name that matches a prohibited person. However, all denial details must be passed along to local or state police for investigation, which could mean increased scrutiny for individuals who were denied, even if they later win their appeal.

Finally, the bill adds serious oversight. Any state taking the grant money must submit to an annual audit by the FBI Director (Section 5) to ensure their point-of-contact system is following all the rules. Furthermore, states must publish detailed annual reports (Section 4) tracking everything from system downtime to how many arrests resulted from the background check process. This level of mandatory transparency is high, but it also creates a lot of new administrative work for state agencies.