SB 1124

Under federal law, a person is prohibited from possessing a firearm if he or she has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. 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 the Department of Justice, 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. This 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 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.