“The data that I have heard is that there are about 6,000 of these delayed responses where these default sales occur after the expiration of the three days,” Barr told a House Appropriations subcommittee after the full committee chairwoman, New York Democrat Nita M. Lowey, asked whether the FBI needs more time to complete background checks.

“When you go back and look at those 6,000 [delayed sales], approximately 2,000 of those, about a third, are people that would have flunked the background check,” Barr added.

Those numbers are not accurate. The FBI was not able to complete 276,000 background checks within three business days last year. It does not track how many customers whose background checks weren’t completed were still able to purchase guns. Dealers also do not notify the bureau when they sell a gun after the third business day.

The FBI does track how many delayed background checks result in a sale to someone who is prohibited from owning a gun. It refers those cases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which retrieves the weapons.

That happened at least 3,960 times in 2018 and at least 4,864 times in 2017, according to annual FBI reports — nearly twice the “approximately 2,000” figure that Barr quoted to Congress in April.