§40912 Requirements to obtain waiver

Summary

States can get a temporary waiver from the 10 percent matching rule for certain federal criminal-history grants starting 3 years after January 8, 2008, if they follow a required plan or if they make at least 90 percent of certain records available to the Attorney General. A waiver can last no more than 2 years. Within 180 days after January 8, 2008, each State must give the Attorney General a reasonable estimate, using the Attorney General’s method, of how many records it has about people who are banned from having guns under federal law. If a State does not give that estimate by the deadline, it cannot get the grant money until it does or sets up an approved implementation plan. States must put electronic records online for the national background-check system showing people who are disqualified from owning firearms. The kinds of records include felony convictions, indictments without final disposition, drug-use or addiction records, mental-commitment or “mental defective” entries, certain court orders, and misdemeanor domestic-violence convictions. The Attorney General will judge compliance by how many relevant records from the past 20 years the State provides, though States should try to send all records no matter how old. States must update or remove records when they no longer apply and must tell the Attorney General. They must certify at least once every 2 years that 90 percent of the records are available. For domestic-violence and mental-health records, States must include specific offense and identifying details. The Attorney General must work with States and mental-health groups to protect privacy and must report yearly, by January 31, to Congress on States’ progress.