New York State NICS Act Record Improvement Program

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, Pub. L. 110-180 ("NICS Improvement Act"), was signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008. The NICS Improvement Act amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 ("the Brady Act") (Pub. L. 103-159), under which the Attorney General established the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The Brady Act requires Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to contact the NICS before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person for information on whether the proposed transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm under state or federal law. The NICS Improvement Act authorizes grants to be made in a manner consistent with the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and its partner agencies will use funds to complete tasks related to the following projects: 1) continue to support New York's NICS Record Improvement Task Force to assess the completeness and availability of NICS records, identify reasons for incomplete and/or unavailable NICS records, and continue to implement New York's NICS Records Improvement Plan; 2) continue efforts to improve records available to NICS by redesigning dispositions systems to reduce errors, decrease the number of missing dispositions, and improve the data transmission process between the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and DCJS; 3) continue efforts to improve the tracking of involuntary mental health admissions to the New York Department of Health (DOH), State and Office of Mental Health (OMH)-licensed adult inpatient facilities, and civil guardianship records from OCA by developing more advanced, automated protocols for the transfer of NICS records to the DOH interim repository for subsequent transmittal to NICS via OMH; and 4) continue to maintain New York's relief from mental health disabilities program. (CA/NCF)