BP BHEAD INT S

AN ACT Relating to records checks; adding a new chapter to Title 9 RCW; and prescribing penalties.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, the definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter.

(1) "Department" means the department of licensing.

(2) "Engaged in business" means as applied to a firearms dealer a person, firm, partnership, or corporation that devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through repetitive purchase or resale of firearms, but "engaged in business" does not involve a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his or her personal collection of firearms.

(3) "Firearms dealer" means:

(a) A person, firm, partnership, or corporation engaged in the business of selling firearms at retail;

(b) A person, firm, partnership, or corporation engaged in the business of making or fitting special barrels, stocks, or trigger mechanisms to firearms; or

(4) "Handgun" means a firearm that has a short stock and is designed to be held and fired by the use of a single hand.

(5) "License" means a license or permit to operate a motor vehicle on the roads and highways of the state, and an identification document issued by the department solely for purposes of identification.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) Before the issuance, reissuance, or reinstatement of a license issued by the department, the department shall conduct a criminal records check of the applicant and shall determine, from records furnished to the department under subsections (2) and (3) of this section, whether the applicant has previously been convicted of a felony or adjudicated mentally incompetent, without having waited five years from the date of the applicant's restoration to capacity by court order. If it is determined that the applicant has been convicted of a felony under the laws of this state, the United States, or another state of the United States or has previously been adjudicated mentally incompetent, without having waited five years from the date of the applicant's restoration to capacity by court order, the license issued by the department must have on its magnetic reader strip indication of the conviction or adjudication. The indication may only be determined through the use of the special magnetic code reader, and may not appear different to the unaided eye from that of a nonprohibited person. The magnetic code reader must be a device that is read only and that does not have storage or communication capabilities. The magnetic code reader must provide a red or a green light signal. The red light must indicate the buyer is a prohibited purchaser under this subsection and the green light must indicate the buyer is not a prohibited person under this subsection. The department shall provide a magnetic code reader to ensure the license reads correctly.

(2) The state patrol shall create a computerized list of felons under Title I, Sec. 103(a) of the Brady Handgun Control Act that the department may contact for information. The state patrol shall achieve, by the end of two years after the effective date of this act, at least eighty percent currency of case dispositions in computerized criminal history files for all cases in which there has been an entry of activity within the last five years and continue to maintain the system.

(3) The state patrol shall create a computerized list of persons who have been adjudicated mentally incompetent and have not waited five years from the date of their restoration to capacity by court order. This list of names must be made available for the department to contact for information.

(4) If records established under this section identify a person as a prohibited person under subsection (1) of this section, the person, if the person believes the identification to be erroneous, may request the state patrol to supply the person with the reasons for the identification. Within five days after receipt of the request, the state patrol shall comply with the request. The person may submit to the state patrol information that might correct, clarify, or supplement the records with respect to the person. Within five days after receipt of the information, the state patrol shall consider the information, investigate the matter further, correct all erroneous records relating to the person, and notify any agency that was the source of the erroneous records of the errors.

(5) A person erroneously identified as a prohibited person, whose records have not been corrected, under subsection (1) of this section may bring an action in a court of original jurisdiction against this state or a political subdivision of this state that is the source of the erroneous information, for damages, including consequential damages, injunctive relief, and such other relief as the court deems appropriate. If the person prevails in the action, the court shall allow the person reasonable attorneys' fees as part of the costs.

(6) In performing his or her duties at a traffic stop, a police officer may utilize a magnetic code reader described in subsection (1) of this section to determine the status of a driver for the officer's own safety. A police agency is not required to purchase or utilize the designated magnetic code reader.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. (1) It is unlawful for a federally licensed firearms dealer to knowingly and intentionally:

(a) Sell a handgun to a person not licensed under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 923 unless the firearms dealer has used a magnetic code reader described in section 2(1) of this act to read the magnetic strip affixed to a license issued to the person by the department; or

(b) Refuse to notify local law enforcement authorities, within eighteen hours, of a person attempting to purchase a handgun who is identified as a prohibited person through the use of a magnetic code reader.

(2) A firearms dealer who violates subsection (1) of this section must be imprisoned not more than one year, fined not more than one thousand dollars, or both.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) of this section do not apply until the department is in full compliance with the background check and magnetic strip and reader system under section 2 of this act. A person in possession of a license issued before the full compliance of the department is exempt from this subsection until such time as the license and identification cards reach their expiration date.

(4) A "license" that is issued by the department and that does not identify a person as a prohibited purchaser is considered a "permit" under Title I, Sec. 102(C) of the Brady Handgun Control Act.

(5) It is unlawful for a prohibited person under section 2(1) of this act to knowingly and intentionally alter, change, modify, or counterfeit a license issued under this chapter. A prohibited person violating this subsection is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, must be punished by imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than ten years or by a fine not to exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, or both.

(6) Upon becoming a prohibited person under section 2(1) of this act, a person's license is void and must be seized by the trial court. The department shall issue a new license, if desired by the prohibited person, with the new prohibition encoded on the magnetic strip.

(7) A prohibited person, under section 2(1) of this act, shall pay additional court costs upon being adjudicated as prohibited persons and shall pay additional fees to the department when obtaining a license, sufficient to cover the expenses of the criminal records checks conducted under section 2(1) of this act.

(8) Two years after the effective date of this act, the system of identifying prohibited persons before the purchase of a handgun as described in this chapter may be the only system used in this state for identifying prohibited persons before the purchase of a firearm.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. This chapter may be known and cited as the "felon identification and police safety act."

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Sections 1 through 4 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 9 RCW.