Oregon's 2011 NARIP Grant 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 Oregon State Police (OSP) will use funds to complete tasks associated with the following projects: 1) support the Oregon NICS Reconciliation Team efforts to ensure that disqualifying records for individuals prohibited from purchasing or possessing a firearm are available to NICS in a timely manner; 2) maintain Oregon's Psychiatric Security Review Board relief from mental health disabilities program; 3) support efforts to develop the requisite technical infrastructure to enable the Oregon Health Authority Addictions and Mental Health Division to make mental health disqualifiers fully accessible to NICS, through OSP, for firearm background check purposes; 4) complete the necessary technical upgrades to the OSP Law Enforcement Data System (LEDS) computer hardware and software systems to enhance the state repository's criminal history record storage capacity, allow for system expansion to support mental health records, and enable increased data sharing between regional and national information systems; and 5) purchase and install two Livescan units at the Oregon Youth Authority to capture and retain juvenile criminal history information for use in future adult firearm determinations. (CA/NCF)