AB 524

This bill creates a crime for purchasing a firearm with the intent to transfer it

to a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm, which is also known as

“straw purchasing.” The crime under the bill includes furnishing or possessing a

firearm for a prohibited person. Under current law, a person who knowingly

furnishes with a firearm a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm may

be convicted of illegal possession of a firearm.

Under current law, a federally licensed firearm dealer may not transfer a

handgun to a person until the person has completed a form that the dealer must use

to conduct a background check on the person. If a person provides false information

on the form, the person must be fined not less than $500 nor more than $10,000 and

may be imprisoned for not more than nine months. This bill increases the penalty

to a Class H felony if the false information regards whether the person is purchasing

the firearm with the purpose or intent of transferring the firearm to a person who

is prohibited from possessing a firearm. This bill authorizes the Department of

Justice to prosecute the violation.

This bill also creates an affirmative defense to straw purchasing crimes if the

defendant has ever filed a petition for a domestic abuse injunction or a child abuse

injunction against the person for whom the defendant was furnishing, purchasing,

or possessing the firearm or for whom the defendant provided false information on

a firearm form.

Under this bill, a person is subject to a mandatory minimum period of

confinement in prison of four years if the person is convicted of illegally possessing

a firearm or convicted of another crime involving a firearm and, within five years

prior to that conviction, he or she had been convicted of committing either three

misdemeanors or one felony. This mandatory minimum sentence requirement

expires on July 1, 2022.