The bill would let the Attorney General award annual grants of up to $1 million to states that meet the bill’s requirements for firearm background-check point-of-contact systems. It would authorize up to $10 million per year for the grant program. States seeking grants would need to establish or maintain a system that checks whether a firearm sale or transfer is lawful and issues an approval number. A sale or transfer could not be completed without that number, which must be issued no later than 10 days after the check is started.
States would also need to provide an appeals process, send information about denials to the responsible law enforcement agency, publish annual reports, and submit their systems to annual FBI audits. The bill would give conforming states preference for certain other discretionary grants from the Bureau of Justice Assistance.
If a state seeks a grant, licensed firearm sellers there would use the state system to check whether a sale or transfer is lawful. The bill also requires a state hotline for sellers to contact the national background-check system. The text does not describe changes for people in states that do not seek grants.
The bill authorizes up to $10 million each fiscal year for the program, with grants of up to $1 million per eligible state each year. Federal grant funds could cover no more than 25 percent of a system’s costs, so the state would cover the remaining costs. The bill does not state actual spending.
No publicly available information.
No publicly available information.