BILL NUMBER: S9780

SPONSOR: KAVANAGH
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the family court act, in relation to allowing access to
juvenile delinquency records for the purposes of a firearm background
check

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To allow the national criminal background check system and the State
Police, which serves as the point of contact for implementation of the
system in New York, to have access to records related to a finding of
juvenile delinquency for the purposes of a firearm background check of a
prospective purchaser who is under the age of twenty-two.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one amends subdivision 4 of section 380.1 of the family court
act to specify that the National Instant Criminal Background Check
System and the division of state police may access records related to a
              

finding of juvenile delinquency for the purpose of conducting a back-
ground check of a person under twenty-two years of age.

Section two sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The United States' gun homicide rate is 26 times higher than that of
other high-income countries like Canada, France, and the United Kingdom.
See Everytown analysis of the most recent year of gun homicides by coun-
try (2013 to 2019) at GunPolicy.org. It is imperative that New York
State take steps to ensure that thorough background checks are conducted
of all prospective purchasers of guns, including young adults.

In June 2022, the United State Congress passed and President Biden
signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), which
implemented a number of changes to school safety, mental health
supports, and gun violence prevention laws. As part of this act, back-
ground checks for firearm purchasers now include an inquiry through the
National Instant Background Check system (NICS) to determine whether
prospective purchasers who are under the age of 22 have certain disqual-
ifying juvenile offenses. Such offenses include findings of juvenile
delinquency in circumstances where a similar finding with respect to an
adult would be a disqualifying criminal offense.

For the new provisions related to prospective purchasers ages 18 to 21
to be effective, states must provide access to data regarding juvenile
and mental health records. Amending New York law to permit access to
these records will enable New York to support the new federal require-
ments and help keep firearms out of the hands of individuals throughout
the United States who may pose a risk to themselves or others around
them.

In September 2023, a new New York State law went into effect, establish-
ing the State Police as the point-of-contact for background checks of
prospective gun purchasers. Licensed gun dealers now have to initiate

background checks required by the NICS database by contacting the State
Police NICS Unit to determine each purchaser's eligibility.

By making records of findings of juvenile delinquency available to NICS
and the New York State Police for the purpose of conducting background
checks of purchasers under 22 years of age, this bill will ensure that
we are doing our part to ensure that background checks are more effec-
tive throughout the United States, consistent with the federal BSCA.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

This is a new bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

Minimal.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the thirtieth day after it shall have
become a law.