§40912 Requirements to Obtain Waiver

Summary

Beginning 3 years after January 8, 2008, a State can get a waiver of the 10 percent matching requirement for National Criminal History Improvement Grants if it follows an approved implementation plan or provides at least 90 percent of the required records. A waiver can last no more than 2 years. By a date not later than 180 days after January 8, 2008, each State had to give the Attorney General a reasonable estimate (using the Attorney General’s method) of how many records it has about people barred from having guns under 18 U.S.C. 922(g) or (n). If a State did not give that estimate on time, it cannot get funds under section 40913 until it provides the estimate or sets up an implementation plan. The kinds of records include convictions for crimes punishable by more than one year, indictments without final disposition, unlawful drug users, people adjudicated as mentally defective or committed, people under certain court orders, and misdemeanor domestic violence convictions. The Attorney General will look at records for events in the prior 20 years, though States should try to send all records no matter the age. States must make those records available electronically to the Attorney General for use in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). If a record’s disqualifying reason stops applying, the State must update or remove it and tell the Attorney General as soon as possible; the Attorney General must update NICS within 30 days of notice. Each State must certify at least once every 2-year period that at least 90 percent of the required records are electronically available. For misdemeanor domestic violence records, States must include the offense details, the statutory section, and the defendant’s relationship to the victim. For mental health cases, States must provide names and other identifying information. The Attorney General must work with States, local law enforcement, and mental health groups to set privacy rules and must report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees each year by January 31 on State progress.