1.   Ashcroft said the law creating the background check system did not permit FBI investigators to use the records to investigate individuals.

2.   At the same time, the current five-day waiting period will be replaced by an instant check system that critics contend is fraught with potential problems.

3.   But any electronic check system inevitably will have some bugs, he conceded.

4.   But not all privacy advocates view the merchant check system as all that bad.

5.   Dole said he would put the instant check system in place by the end of next year.

6.   He said he would emphasize the creation of a nationwide instant background check system to help ensure that criminals cannot obtain firearms.

7.   He said the instant check system is complicated because it must search three different databases.

8.   Officials at NStar Corp. and Citibank both said they have no immediate plans to adopt a check conversion system.

9.   She likes the instant check system.

10.   The Brady law that Dole opposed contains an instant check system that the Justice Department was to implement nationwide in five years.