AB 1056

FIREARM TRANSFERS AND POSSESSION

Background checks before firearms transfers

Current law provides that a federally licensed firearms dealer may not transfer a handgun after a sale until the dealer has performed a background check on the prospective transferee to determine if they are prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law. This bill generally prohibits any person from transferring any firearm, including the frame or receiver of a firearm, unless the transfer occurs through a federally licensed firearms dealer and involves a background check of the prospective transferee. Under the bill, the following are excepted from that prohibition: a transfer to a firearms dealer or to a law enforcement or armed services agency; a transfer of a firearm classified as antique; a transfer for no more than 14 days for the purpose of hunting or target shooting that involves no more than nominal consideration; or a transfer that is by gift, bequest, or inheritance to a family member. A person who is convicted of violating the prohibition is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be fined not less than $500 nor more than $10,000, may be imprisoned for not more than nine months, and may not possess a firearm for a period of two years.

Law enforcement access to handgun background checks

Current law outlines the process for the background check that a federally licensed firearms dealer must perform before transferring a handgun after a sale. Under current law, the dealer requests the Department of Justice to perform the background check on the prospective transferee to determine if they are prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law. Current law prohibits the following persons from possessing a firearm: persons who have been convicted of a felony; persons found not guilty of a felony by reason of mental disease or defect; persons who are subject to certain injunctions such as a domestic abuse or child abuse injunction or, in certain cases, a harassment or an individuals-at-risk injunction; and persons who have been involuntarily committed for mental health treatment and ordered not to possess a firearm. Current law also prohibits a person from intentionally furnishing, purchasing, or possessing a firearm for a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm. This practice is commonly called “straw purchasing.”

Under current law, DOJ must deny access to records regarding background checks; however there are exceptions. The bill creates three additional exceptions. First, under current law, if the background check reveals that a prospective transferee is prohibited from possessing a firearm under state law, the attorney general may disclose to a law enforcement agency that the person attempted to purchase a handgun. The bill adds that the attorney general may make such a disclosure to law enforcement if a prospective transferee is prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal law as well as state law. Second, the bill adds that the attorney general may disclose to a law enforcement agency an attempted transfer if the circumstances surrounding the request for a background check indicate that the prospective transferee is trying to make a straw purchase of a handgun. Third, the bill specifies that DOJ may forward the final transaction status of a background check to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, commonly referred to as NICS, as provided under federal law.

Extreme risk protection order

Under current law, a person is prohibited from possessing a firearm, and must surrender all firearms, if the person is subject to a domestic abuse injunction, a child abuse injunction, or, in certain cases, a harassment or an individuals-at-risk injunction. If a person surrenders a firearm because the person is subject to one of those injunctions, the firearm may not be returned to the person until a court determines that the injunction has been vacated or has expired and that the person is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm. A person who is subject to such an injunction and in violation of the prohibition against possessing a firearm is guilty of a Class G felony.

The bill creates an extreme risk protection temporary restraining order and injunction to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm. Under the bill, either a law enforcement officer or a family or household member of the person may file a petition with a court to request an extreme risk protection injunction. The petition must allege facts that show that the person is substantially likely to injure themself or another if the person possesses a firearm.

Under the bill, the petitioner may request the court to consider first granting a temporary restraining order. If the petitioner does request a TRO, the petitioner must include evidence that there is an immediate and present danger that the person may injure themself or another if the person possesses a firearm and that waiting for the injunction hearing may increase the immediate and present danger.

If the petitioner requests a TRO, the court must hear the petition in an expedited manner. The judge must issue a TRO if, after questioning the petitioner and witnesses or relying on affidavits, the judge determines that it is substantially likely that the petition for an injunction will be granted and the judge finds good cause to believe there is an immediate and present danger that the person will injure themself or another if the person has a firearm and that waiting for the injunction hearing may increase the immediate and present danger. If the judge issues a TRO, the TRO is in effect until the injunction hearing, which must occur within 14 days of the TRO issuance. The TRO must require a law enforcement officer to personally serve the person with the order and to require the person to immediately surrender all firearms in his or her possession. If a law enforcement officer is unable to personally serve the person, then the TRO requires the person to surrender within 24 hours all firearms to a law enforcement officer or a firearms dealer and to provide the court a receipt indicating the surrender occurred.

At the injunction hearing, if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the person is substantially likely to injure themself or another if the person possesses a firearm, the court may grant an extreme risk protection injunction ordering the person to refrain from possessing a firearm and, if the person was not subject to a TRO, to surrender all firearms the person possesses. An extreme risk protection injunction is effective for up to one year and may be renewed. A person who is subject to an extreme risk protection injunction may petition to vacate the injunction. If a person surrenders a firearm because the person is subject to an extreme risk protection TRO or injunction, the firearm may not be returned to the person until a court determines that the TRO has expired or the injunction has been vacated or has expired and that the person is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm.

A person who possesses a firearm while subject to an extreme risk protection TRO or injunction is guilty of a Class G felony. In addition, a person who files a petition for an extreme risk protection injunction, knowing the information in the petition to be false, is guilty of the crime of false swearing, a Class H felony.

Misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence as a firearms disqualifier

Under federal law, a person who has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence is prohibited from possessing a firearm. Under state law, a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm under federal or state law also may not purchase a firearm or be issued a license to carry a concealed weapon. State law requires DOJ, before approving a handgun purchase or issuing a license, to conduct a background check to determine if the person is prohibited from possessing a firearm. To determine if the person is prohibited under federal law, DOJ must review court records of all of the person’s criminal convictions to identify if any conviction is for a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. DOJ must determine if the relationship between the offender and the victim qualifies as a domestic relationship and if the offender engaged in violent conduct when committing the crime. The bill reorganizes two statutes—the crime of disorderly conduct and the definition of domestic abuse—so that DOJ is able to more easily determine if a conviction under one of those statutes qualifies as a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

First, under current law, a person is guilty of disorderly conduct if the person engages in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud, or otherwise disorderly conduct and if the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance. A person who has been convicted of disorderly conduct is prohibited from possessing a firearm if the disorderly conduct was a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence—that is, if the person engaged in violent conduct and if the relationship between the person and the victim was domestic. The bill reorganizes the disorderly conduct statute to separate “violent” conduct from the other types of disorderly conduct so that the court record clearly indicates that the crime was a violent crime.

Second, under current state law, “domestic abuse” is defined as certain actions taken against a victim if the victim is related to the actor, has a child in common with the actor, or currently resides or has resided with the actor. Unlike state law, federal law does not define a crime as domestic violence if the only relationship is that the victim currently resides or has resided with the actor. The bill reorganizes the statute defining domestic abuse so that a court record would indicate the exact nature of the relationship. Therefore, under the bill, the court record would indicate when a person who is guilty under state law of a crime of domestic abuse is not guilty under federal law of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

Domestic violence protection orders

Under federal law, a person is prohibited from possessing a firearm if the person is subject to a court order that restrains them from harassing, stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or the partner’s child and that contains a finding that the person represents a credible threat to the safety of the partner or child or an explicit term that prohibits the person from using, attempting to use, or threatening to use physical force against the partner or child.

Under the bill, if a person is released on bail or bond and the court issues such an order, the clerk of court must send a copy of the order to the appropriate sheriff within one business day of the person’s release. The sheriff must then enter the court order into an information system so that law enforcement has access to the order similar to how law enforcement has access to other orders for domestic violence, harassment, or child abuse that prohibit a person from possessing a firearm.

Prohibition on undetectable “ghost” guns

The bill prohibits the manufacture, transportation, sale, possession, and carrying of firearms that cannot be detected by metal detectors or airport x-ray machines or scanners. Federal law currently has a comparable prohibition; under the bill, the person would violate state law as well. A person who violates the state prohibition is guilty of a Class G felony.

The bill prohibits the sale, posting, provision, or possession of plans for manufacturing an undetectable firearm. A person who violates the prohibition is guilty of a Class H felony.

The bill also prohibits the possession of a frame or a receiver of a firearm that is not marked with a serial number. A person who violates the prohibition is guilty of a Class I felony.

Penalty increase for the illegal possession of a firearm or for the straw purchase of a firearm

The bill increases the penalty for the illegal possession of a firearm or for the straw purchase of a firearm. Under current law, either crime is a Class G felony. The bill increases the penalty to a Class F felony for a repeat offense.

VICTIMS AND WITNESSES

Victim and witness reimbursement payments

Under current law, DOJ reimburses counties for 90 percent of the costs a county incurs in providing certain services to crime victims and witnesses. The reimbursement is funded through an annual sum certain appropriation and through other appropriations using program revenue from surcharges. Under current law, the actual reimbursement is subject to available funding. The bill changes the sum certain appropriation to a sum sufficient appropriation to be used if the program revenue accounts are not sufficient but limits the amount to be reimbursed from the sum sufficient appropriation to 60 percent of the amount for which the county is eligible to be reimbursed. The bill also changes one of the program revenue accounts used for such reimbursement from an annual to a continuing appropriation.

Address confidentiality program

The bill provides new general purpose revenue funding for the address confidentiality program operated by DOJ. Under current law, DOJ’s address confidentiality program, known as “Safe at Home,” provides certain victims of domestic abuse with a substitute legal address that can be used for both public and private purposes so that the victim’s home address can remain confidential.

Intimidation of a witness or a victim

Under current law, the crime of intimidation of a witness or a victim is a Class A misdemeanor, unless certain aggravating factors are present, in which case it is a Class H felony. The bill increases the penalty for the crime of intimidation of a witness or a victim from a Class A misdemeanor to a Class H felony and from a Class H felony to a Class G felony if the aggravating factors are present.

Victim services

The bill provides an additional $34,202,700 in grant funding to crime victim service providers.

LAW ENFORCEMENT RECRUITMENT, RETENTION, AND TRAINING

Law enforcement officer recruitment, retention, and wellness grants

The bill requires DOJ to provide $10,000,000 in grants in the 2025-27 fiscal biennium for programs designed to recruit and retain law enforcement officers and to promote officer wellness.

OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE

Obstructing justice