BILL REQ. #:  S-4551.2 

Read first time 01/23/08.   Referred to Committee on Judiciary.

     AN ACT Relating to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007; and creating new sections.

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

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) On January 8, 2008, the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 became federal law. In that law, congress made a finding that between 1998 and 2004 about nine hundred sixteen thousand individuals were prohibited from purchasing a firearm because they failed a background check through the national instant criminal background check system, or NICS. Congress also found that the current NICS is unable to access nearly twenty-one million criminal records, and millions of existing records in the system are missing critical data, such as arrest dispositions, due to data backlogs. Because of these data deficiencies, some persons who should have been prohibited from obtaining firearms were able to purchase firearms and use them to commit serious crimes. Congress found that the primary cause of delays and deficiencies in the national instant criminal background check system is the lack of updates, available state criminal disposition records, and automated access to information concerning persons prohibited from possessing or receiving a firearm because of mental illness, restraining orders, or misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence.
     (2) To implement the NICS Improvement Amendments Act, congress appropriated one billion one hundred twenty-five million dollars in grant funds to assist states in developing and improving their electronic data systems. In order to be eligible for these new federal grants, states must provide to the United States attorney general, by July 6, 2008, a reasonable estimate of the number of the records that concern persons who are prohibited from possessing or receiving a firearm under Title 18, United States Code, including the number of persons:
     (a) Convicted of a felony;
     (b) Convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence;
     (c) With outstanding arrest warrants;
     (d) Who are users or addicted to illegal drugs as demonstrated by arrests, convictions, or adjudications and whose record is not protected from disclosure to the United States attorney general under any provision of state or federal law;
     (e) Who have been adjudicated as a "mental defective," as defined by federal law, or committed to a mental institution and whose record is not protected from disclosure to the United States attorney general under any provision of state or federal law; and
     (f) Subject to a domestic violence order.
     (3) After provision of the estimate in subsection (2) of this section, the state is eligible for federal grants to assist the state in designing and building a data system to report the necessary information to the NICS. Failure to provide an estimate described in subsection (2) of this section could result in the loss of other federal public safety grants awarded under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   The legislature directs the Washington state patrol, the department of licensing, and the administrative office of the courts to establish a work group, with the Washington state office of the attorney general, and any other necessary offices, agencies, and departments, to develop a written plan for providing the estimate required under the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. The work group must report back to the legislature and the Washington state office of the attorney general with the plan for providing the estimate no later than May 1, 2008. The Washington state attorney general is authorized to collect and deliver the estimate to the United States attorney general.