Government Shutdown and NICS Checks

With all of the talk over the past several weeks about the government shutdown because our elected representatives (on both sides of the aisle) can’t get their act together, I can’t help but wonder what would happen with NICS checks should the government shut down. The US government is set to run out of money, and shut down tonight (10/1/2013) unless the House and Senate can sort out their differences in the next couple of hours.

I’m assuming that the NICS call center would be affected by the government shutdown, and dealers wouldn’t be able to call in for NICS checks for potential buyers.

Would dealers be allowed to release guns to buyers after a certain amount of time, or would a government shutdown basically put gun stores our of business for a while?

I don’t know the answer, what do you think? Any FFL dealers care to weigh in on this?

7:00PM Update:

I just heard from an FFL that the NICS call center will remain open during the shutdown.