NICS Denial Alert Turns Into 14 Days in Jail for Florida Gun Owner

A Florida gun owner says he spent two weeks in jail because the government’s background-check machinery treated an old Kentucky misdemeanor as if it were a felony.

That should bother every American who values due process, the right to keep and bear arms, and basic competence from the people who have the power to put citizens in handcuffs.

William Michael Brewer tried to buy a Glock 26 from Lotus Gunworks in Jensen Beach, Florida. According to the Civil Rights Lawyer on YouTube, Brewer said he filled out the paperwork, paid for the firearm, and waited for the call that his background check had cleared. Instead, he was told the transaction had been denied.

That denial set off a chain of events that should never have gone this far.

WPTV reported that the failed background check was flagged by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, alerting the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies believed Brewer was a felon trying to buy a gun. Brewer and his attorney say he was not. The problem, according to WPTV, came from the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, where Brewer’s Kentucky record showed a felony arrest from more than a decade ago, while Kentucky court documents confirmed the charge had been reduced to a misdemeanor. That update was not reflected in NCIC.

Brewer was later pulled over by Martin County deputies. In the video, Brewer says he had a firearm in his work bag and told officers about it. The video shows him repeatedly trying to explain that he was not a felon, that he had a Kentucky concealed carry license, and that he had passed other background checks. The deputies arrested him anyway.

Body-camera video showed Brewer pleading with deputies not to arrest him after they pulled him over, believing he was a felon in possession of a firearm. Brewer told WPTV he was taken out of the vehicle, handcuffed, and told he was under arrest as a felon in possession.

Brewer’s own words from the video cut through the legal fog: “Do you understand how scary it is to not be a felon and then you get arrested as a felon?”

Not a paperwork inconvenience. Not a minor “oops” in a government database. Not a harmless background-check hiccup. A man was jailed for 14 days because officials treated a database flag as proof rather than a lead that needed verification.

WPTV confirmed Brewer spent 14 days in jail. His attorney, Andrew Strecker, said his team produced original documents establishing Brewer was not a felon, but the remedy offered was a bond reduction and release on an ankle monitor. Prosecutors eventually dropped the case after receiving certified records showing the misdemeanor conviction.

Brewer has now sued the Martin County Sheriff’s Office and the deputies involved in his arrest, accusing them of false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution, according to WPTV.

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A NICS Denial Is Not A Conviction

During the arrest, Brewer said,”so, because I tried to purchase a firearm, I got pulled over for it, and it red-flagged or something.” 

This case points to a dangerous flaw in the modern background-check regime. The FBI says NICS checks are conducted when a Federal Firearms Licensee contacts NICS by phone or electronically after a prospective buyer completes the required form. The background check is supposed to determine whether the buyer is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm.

Since October 1, 2022, the FBI has been required by law to report NICS denied transactions to state, local, or tribal law enforcement within 24 hours. The FBI says those notifications are sent based on the location of the FFL and, when different, the attempted buyer’s home address.

But here is the key point every gun owner, every cop, every prosecutor, and every lawmaker needs to understand: the FBI’s own law-enforcement page says the law does not require agencies to take action when they receive those denial notifications. The FBI also says its NICS Section will not ask them to take action.

That means a denial notice is not a command to arrest. It is not a court judgment. It is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not even necessarily proof that a crime occurred. It is a notification. That is all.

In Brewer’s case, WPTV reported that the State Attorney’s Office, FDLE, and the sheriff’s office all saw the same NCIC record showing a felony severity and guilty disposition, but the NCIC record had no mention that the felony charge had been amended down to a misdemeanor. Kentucky State Police later told WPTV that the electronic record reflected a felony charge, but the disposition section indicated the charge was later amended to a misdemeanor.

Wrongful NICS Denials Are Not A Theoretical Problem

Brewer’s case is not an isolated incident.

AmmoLand previously reported that records obtained through a FOIA request showed the FBI said 27.7% of NICS appeals received during the requested period were overturned, and the firearm transactions were allowed to proceed. GOA argued that even that number understates the real problem because many denied buyers never appeal, either because they do not know how, cannot afford help, or simply give up.

Second Amendment researcher John Lott has gone further, arguing that the overwhelming majority of initial NICS denials are false positives. He also points to the very low rate of prosecutions after NICS denials as evidence that many denied transactions are not real criminal cases.

The Database Cannot Be The Constitution

Gun-control advocates want Americans to trust the background-check systems as if it were clean, complete, and infallible.

Brewer’s case shows the danger of that fantasy.

When the government builds a system that can deny a gun purchase, trigger police notification, launch an investigation, produce an arrest, and put a citizen in jail based on stale or incomplete records, the burden cannot be shoved onto the citizen after the handcuffs are already on.

The government should have to prove the prohibition before it strips a man of his freedom and treats him like a criminal.

Brewer’s attorney said in the video that officials could have verified Brewer’s status by checking with Kentucky, the clerk, the prosecutor’s office, or law enforcement there. He said his office did that and found the case was not a felony.

WPTV reported that Sheriff John Budensiek defended the deputies, saying they did their job and used the mechanisms in place, while noting that bad information in the database was not input by the Martin County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant State Attorney Kristen Chase told WPTV that prosecutors needed certified official records from Kentucky, which can take time, and said the system did what it was supposed to do.

That defense will not satisfy gun owners. If the “system” can jail a man for two weeks before the government confirms whether he is actually a prohibited person, then the system is not working for citizens. It is working for bureaucracy.

Gun Owners Should Pay Attention

This is what happens when government databases become the gatekeepers of constitutional rights and local officials treat those databases as gospel. More to the point: where is the historical analogue for background checks at the time of the Founding? 

The right to keep and bear arms does not depend on a clean data entry. Due process does not begin after two weeks in jail. A NICS denial should never be treated as a conviction, and a database flag should never replace basic police work.

Brewer said in the video that he is speaking out because he does not want anyone else to go through what he went through.

If bad data can turn a lawful gun owner into a jailed “felon” in Florida, it can happen anywhere the government is allowed to treat a background-check denial like proof of guilt instead of a reason to investigate carefully.

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About Duncan Johnson:

Duncan Johnson is a lifelong firearms enthusiast and unwavering defender of the Second Amendment—where “shall not be infringed” means exactly what it says. A graduate of George Mason University, he enjoys competing in local USPSA and multi-gun competitions whenever he’s not covering the latest in gun rights and firearm policy. Duncan is a regular contributor to AmmoLand News and serves as part of the editorial team responsible for AmmoLand’s daily gun-rights reporting and industry coverage.