Bill Text: NY S02438 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Relates to access to foreign state records concerning previous or present mental illness of applicants for firearms licenses.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 32-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-09-03 - signed chap.242 [S02438 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-S02438-Introduced.html


                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          2438
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                    IN SENATE
                                    January 24, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced by Sens. KAPLAN, KAVANAGH, ADDABBO, BAILEY, BENJAMIN, BIAGGI,
          BRESLIN,  BROOKS,  CARLUCCI,  COMRIE,  GAUGHRAN,  GIANARIS, GOUNARDES,
          HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, KAMINSKY,  KRUEGER,  LIU,  MAYER,  PARKER,
          PERSAUD,  RAMOS, SALAZAR, SAVINO, SEPULVEDA, SERRANO, STAVISKY, THOMAS
          -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to
          the Committee on Codes
        AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to access  to  foreign  state
          records
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Subdivision 4 of  section  400.00  of  the  penal  law,  as
     2  amended by chapter 1 of the laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows:
     3    4.  Investigation.  Before a license is issued or renewed, there shall
     4  be an investigation of all statements required in the application by the
     5  duly constituted police authorities of the locality where such  applica-
     6  tion is made, including but not limited to such records as may be acces-
     7  sible  to  the  division of state police or division of criminal justice
     8  services pursuant to section 400.02 of this article. For  that  purpose,
     9  the  records  of  the  appropriate  office  of  the department of mental
    10  hygiene concerning previous or present mental illness of  the  applicant
    11  shall  be  available  for inspection by the investigating officer of the
    12  police authority. Where the applicant is domiciled in a  foreign  state,
    13  the investigation shall include inquiry of the foreign state for records
    14  concerning the previous or present mental illness of the applicant, and,
    15  to the extent necessary for inspection by the investigating officer, the
    16  applicant  shall  execute  a waiver of confidentiality of such record in
    17  such form as may be required by the foreign state. In order to ascertain
    18  any previous criminal record, the investigating officer shall  take  the
    19  fingerprints  and  physical  descriptive  data  in quadruplicate of each
    20  individual by whom the application is signed and verified. Two copies of
    21  such fingerprints shall be taken on  standard  fingerprint  cards  eight
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD02184-01-9

        S. 2438                             2
     1  inches  square,  and  one  copy may be taken on a card supplied for that
     2  purpose by the federal bureau of investigation; provided, however,  that
     3  in  the  case  of  a  corporate applicant that has already been issued a
     4  dealer  in firearms license and seeks to operate a firearm dealership at
     5  a second or subsequent location, the original fingerprints on  file  may
     6  be  used  to  ascertain  any criminal record in the second or subsequent
     7  application unless any of the corporate officers have changed since  the
     8  prior  application, in which case the new corporate officer shall comply
     9  with procedures governing an initial application for such license.  When
    10  completed,  one  standard card shall be forwarded to and retained by the
    11  division of criminal justice services in the  executive  department,  at
    12  Albany.  A search of the files of such division and written notification
    13  of the results of the search to the investigating officer shall be  made
    14  without  unnecessary  delay.  Thereafter, such division shall notify the
    15  licensing officer  and  the  executive  department,  division  of  state
    16  police,  Albany,  of  any criminal record of the applicant filed therein
    17  subsequent to the search of its files. A second standard  card,  or  the
    18  one supplied by the federal bureau of investigation, as the case may be,
    19  shall  be forwarded to that bureau at Washington with a request that the
    20  files of the bureau be searched and notification of the results  of  the
    21  search  be  made to the investigating police authority. Of the remaining
    22  two fingerprint cards, one shall be filed with the executive department,
    23  division of state police, Albany, within ten days after issuance of  the
    24  license,  and  the  other  remain  on file with the investigating police
    25  authority. No such fingerprints may be inspected  by  any  person  other
    26  than  a  peace  officer,  who  is  acting pursuant to his or her special
    27  duties, or a police officer, except on order of a judge or justice of  a
    28  court of record either upon notice to the licensee or without notice, as
    29  the judge or justice may deem appropriate. Upon completion of the inves-
    30  tigation, the police authority shall report the results to the licensing
    31  officer without unnecessary delay.
    32    §  2.  This  act  shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
    33  have become a law.
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