SB 44

Under current law, if a person seeks to purchase a handgun from a licensed

handgun dealer, the dealer must ask the Department of Justice (DOJ) to conduct a

background check on the person. In conducting the background check, DOJ searches

DOJ records to determine whether the person is ineligible to possess a firearm under

state law, but state law does not explicitly require DOJ to determine whether federal

law bars the person from possessing a firearm based on criteria not covered by state

law. This bill requires DOJ, when conducting a background check on a prospective

handgun purchaser, to check whether the person has been the subject of a court order

or finding that is based on a determination that the person's mental health would

render the person ineligible under federal law to possess a firearm.

This bill requires courts to determine whether a person would be ineligible

under federal law to possess a firearm during proceedings for involuntary

commitment for persons found by the court to be mentally ill, drug dependent, or

developmentally disabled and to be dangerous, during proceedings for appointment

of a guardian of the person for an individual found by the court to be incompetent,

and, if not previously determined, during proceedings under which a court orders

protective placement or protective services (mental health proceeding). If the court

determines that federal law prohibits the person from possessing a firearm, the court

must order the person not to possess a firearm, order the seizure of any firearm the

person owns, and inform the person that he or she would be committing a felony if

he or she possessed a firearm. The court must then convey the disqualified status

to DOJ which may use that information only during background checks conducted

when the person seeks to purchase a handgun or under rules that DOJ promulgates

in order to provide information to the national instant criminal background check

system.

Specifically, to determine ineligibility under federal law at a mental health

proceeding, a court must determine if the person has been "adjudicated as a mental

defective" or "committed to a mental institution," as defined in federal law. Under

federal law, "adjudicated as a mental defective" means a determination by a court,

board, commission, or other lawful authority that a person, as a result of a marked

subnormal intelligence, or a mental illness, incompetency, condition, or disease

either is a danger to himself or herself or to others or lacks the mental capacity to

contract or manage his or her own affairs. This determination includes a finding of

insanity by a court in a criminal case and persons found incompetent to stand trial

or found not guilty by reason of lack of mental responsibility pursuant to the Uniform

Code of Military Justice. Federal law defines "committed to a mental institution" as

a formal commitment of a person to a mental institution by a court, board,

commission, or other lawful authority. The term includes a commitment to a mental

institution involuntarily, commitment for mental defectiveness or mental illness,

and commitments for other reasons such as for drug use. The term does not include