[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3264 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 3264
To ensure that individuals with histories of mental illness and other
persons prohibited from owning or possessing firearms are stopped from
buying firearms by requiring instant background checks prior to making
a firearms purchase, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
October 30 (legislative day, September 22), 2000
Mr. Lott (for Mr. Ashcroft) introduced the following bill; which was
read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To ensure that individuals with histories of mental illness and other
persons prohibited from owning or possessing firearms are stopped from
buying firearms by requiring instant background checks prior to making
a firearms purchase, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This bill may be cited as the ``Records Access Improvements Act of
2000''.
SEC. 2. RECORDS ACCESS IMPROVEMENTS.
(a) Requirements for Receipt of Federal Funds.--The Brady Handgun
Violence Prevention Act (Brady Act), Public Law No. 103-159, 107 Stat.
1563, is amended by adding at the end of Title I the following:
``SEC. 107. RECORDS OF PERSONS PROHIBITED FROM ACCESS TO FIREARMS.
``(a) Notwithstanding Any Other Provision of Law.--
``(1) the total of the amounts of any appropriation
hereafter derived or authorized from the Violent Crime
Reduction Trust Fund (42 U.S.C. Sec. 14211) for grants to an
individual State (and any local government in that State) in
this Act, and in any other Act, is reduced by 10 percent on and
after October 1, 2001, and another 10 percent each and every
fiscal year thereafter, until no appropriation or authorization
level is available, unless and until the chief executive
officer for such State or local government receiving Violent
Crime Reduction Trust Funds certifies to the Attorney General
that at least ninety-five percent of all available records
regarding persons who are--
``(A) adjudicated as mental defectives or been
committed to a mental institution by a court, board,
commission, or other lawful authority;
``(B) under indictment for, or have been convicted
in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for
a term exceeding one year;
``(C) fugitives from justice;
``(D) unlawful users of or addicted to any
controlled substance;
``(E) subject to a court order restraining them
from committing domestic violence; and
``(F) convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic
violence,
in that jurisdiction's system of record keeping (which includes
executive and judicial record keeping systems) have been and
continue to be provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
to support implementation of the National Instant Criminal
Background Check System; and
``(2) the reductions for each grant made pursuant to
paragraph (1) shall be terminated upon such certification. For
the fiscal year the certification is provided, the department,
agency, or instrumentality of the United States authorized to
make the grant shall restore that State or local jurisdiction's
Violent Crime Reduction Trust Funds grants to those levels that
would otherwise have been awarded and disbursed if the
jurisdiction had been providing at least ninety-five percent of
all the available records described in paragraph (1) in that
jurisdiction's system of record keeping to the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.
``(b) For Purposes of This Section.--
``(1) the term `adjudicated as mental defectives or been
committed to a mental institution' means an official record of
a person--
``(A) adjudicated as mental defective by a court,
board, commission, or other lawful authority. An
adjudication as a mental defective occurs when a court,
board, commission, or other lawful authority determines
that an individual is mentally retarded or of marked subnormal
intelligence, mentally ill, or mentally incompetent, including
defendants in criminal cases--
``(i) adjudicated as not guilty by reason
of insanity, and
``(ii) found to be a danger to others as a
result of a mental disorder or illness; or
``(B) committed to a mental institution through
formal commitment by a court, board, commission, or
other legal authority, including any person who has
been committed involuntarily to a mental institution,
including for reasons other than mental defectiveness
or mental illness (such as for drug use), except that--
``(i) the mere presence of a person in a
mental institution for observation; or
``(ii) a voluntary commitment to a mental
institution, shall not be considered a
disabling commitment, or a record to be
reported to the National Instant Criminal
Background Check system. `Mental institutions'
means mental health facilities, mental
hospitals, sanitariums, psychiatric facilities,
and other facilities that provide diagnoses by
licensed professionals of mental retardation or
mental illness.
``(2)(A) The term `misdemeanor crime of domestic violence'
means a Federal, State or local offense that--
``(i) is a misdemeanor under Federal or State law
or, in States which do not classify offenses as
misdemeanors, is an offense punishable by imprisonment
for a term of one year or less, and includes offenses
that are punishable only by a fine (offenses are
included whether or not the State statute specifically
defines the offense as a `misdemeanor' or as a
`misdemeanor crime of domestic violence' and also
includes all such misdemeanor convictions in Indian
Courts established pursuant to 25 C.F.R. party11);
``(ii) has, as an element, the use or attempted use
of physical force (e.g., assault and battery), or the
threatened use of a deadly weapon; and
``(iii) was committed by a current or former
spouse, parent, or guardian of the victim, by a person
with whom the victim shares a child in common, by a
person who is cohabiting with or has cohabited with the
victim as a spouse, parent, or guardian (e.g., the
equivalent of a `common law' marriage even if such
relationship is not recognized under the law), or a
person similarly situated to a spouse, parent, or
guardian of the victim (e.g., two persons who are
residing at the same location in an intimate
relationship with the intent to make that place their
home would be similarly situated to a spouse).
``(B) A person shall not be considered to have been
convicted of such an offense for purposes of this section
unless--
``(i) the person is considered to have been
convicted by the jurisdiction in which the proceedings
were held;
``(ii) the person was represented by counsel in the
case, or knowingly and intelligently waived the right
to counsel in the case; and
``(iii) in the case of a prosecution for which a
person was entitled to a jury trial in the jurisdiction
in which the case was tried, either--
``(I) the case was tried by a jury; or
``(II) the person knowingly and
intelligently waived the right to have the case
tried by a jury, by guilty plea or otherwise.
``(iv) A person shall not be considered to have
been convicted of such an offense for purposes of this
section if the conviction has been expunged or set
aside, or is an offense for which the person has been
pardoned or has had civil rights restored (if the law
of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held
provides for the loss of civil rights upon conviction
for such an offense), unless the pardon, expunction, or
restoration of civil rights expressly provides that the
person may not ship, transport, possess, or receive
firearms, and the person is not otherwise prohibited by
the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings
were held from receiving or possessing any firearms.
``(3)(A) The term `persons who are under indictment for, or
have been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by
imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,' means any person--
``(i) who currently is under indictment (or
`information') for a crime punishable by imprisonment
for a term exceeding one year, or whose case has been
referred to court-martial if that person is in the
military; or
``(ii) who has been convicted in any court
(including, for example, a military court) of a crime
punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one
year (`information' refers to a formal accusation of a
crime made by a prosecuting attorney, as distinguished
from an `indictment' presented by a grand jury). The
maximum sentence that may be imposed determines whether
a person is under indictment or information for a
disabling crime. Similarly, the maximum sentence that
may be imposed, rather than the actual sentence,
determines whether a person has been convicted of a
disabling crime.
``(B) Indictments, information, and convictions for the
following crimes are exceptions and are not disabling:
``(i) Federal or State offenses pertaining to
antitrust offenses, unfair trade practices, and other
similar business-related offenses; and
``(ii) State offenses classified by State law as
misdemeanors punishable by imprisonment for a term of 2
years or less.
``(C) Any conviction which has been expunged, set aside, or
for which a person has been pardoned or has had civil rights
restored remains disabling if;
``(i) the pardon, expunction, or restoration of
civil rights expressly provides that the person may not
ship, transport, possess, or receive firearms, or
``(ii) the person is prohibited by the law of the
jurisdiction where the conviction occurred from
receiving or possessing any firearm.
``(4) The term `persons who are fugitives from justice'
means persons (A) who know they have charges pending against
them, even if only for a misdemeanor, and who leave the State
of prosecution, or (B) who leave the State in order to avoid
giving testimony in any criminal proceeding.
``(5)(A) The term `persons who are unlawful users of, or
addicted to, any controlled substance' means persons who are--
``(i) unlawful users of, or addicted to, any
controlled substance, as defined in section 102 of the
Controlled Substances Act. Controlled substances
include, but are not limited to, marijuana,
depressants, stimulants, and narcotic drugs. They do
not include distilled spirits, wine, malt beverages, or
tobacco. The use of any illegal controlled substance
(such as PCP), or the use of any other controlled
substance (such as morphine) in a manner other than as
prescribed by a licensed physician, is also unlawful
use; or
``(ii) addicted to a controlled substance, meaning
any individual who is found to (I) habitually use a
controlled substance so as to endanger the health,
safety, welfare, or morals of the public, or (II) to
have lost the power of self-control with reference to
the addition.
``(B) To incur firearms disabilities, there must be
evidence that a person is a current unlawful user of, or addict
to, a controlled substance. Such unlawful use or addiction may
be demonstrated by evidence of--
``(i) the recent use of a controlled substance,
which is part of a pattern of unlawful use or
addiction; or
``(ii) the current unlawful use of, or addiction
to, a controlled substance.
``(6) The term `persons who are subject to a court order
restraining them from committing domestic violence' means any
persons who, at the time they apply to receive a firearm, are
under a court order that meets the following criteria--
``(A) the order must have been issued after a
hearing of which the person subject to the order
received actual notice, and at which the person had an
opportunity to participate; and
``(B) the order must restrain the person subject to
the order from harassing, stalking, or threatening an
intimate partner of the person, or a child of the
intimate partner or person, or engaging in other
conduct that would place an intimate partner in
reasonable fear of bodily injury to the partner or
child; and
``(C) the order must include a finding that the
person subject to the order represents a credible
threat to the physical safety of the intimate partner
or child, or the order must explicitly prohibit the
use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force
against the intimate partner or child that would
reasonably be expected to cause bodily injury.
``(7) The term `intimate partner' is defined as a spouse,
former spouse, an individual who is a parent of a child of the
person, or an individual who cohabitates or has cohabited with
the person.''
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take
effect on January 1, 2001.
<all>
Introduced in Senate
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S11376-11377)
Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Star Print ordered on the bill.
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