FY 2014 NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP)

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).

Under this award, the North Dakota Office of Attorney General, the state's NARIP administering agency, will pass through funds to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) to complete tasks that will improve the state's reporting of warrants to NCIC, which is currently a key state priority. Currently, not all reporting agencies operate a records management system with a warrants module and ones that do often enter warrants into NCIC via a teletype system or forward paperwork to BCI for manual entry to NCIC through the teletype. The process involves having to complete two separate transactions and is inefficient and prone to human error. BCI will use funds to ensure that all warrants, regardless of extradition status, are submitted to the state repository and forwarded by BCI to NCIC and to provide an easy mechanism for the local offices to submit to the state repository and, subsequently, to NCIC so all state warrants are available at the time of a background check for a firearm purchase. Specifically, funds will be used to build the requisite connections and interfaces to enable local agencies to electronically submit data to BCI (where able), for subsequent transmission to NCIC. For agencies that do not have the capacity to electronically submit the data, BCI will use funds to improve the current submission process through the North Dakota CJIS portal infrastructure. BCI used FY 2011 NARIP funds to make available mental health records to NICS and the state is currently in the process of testing the electronic transfer of prohibiting mental health records from the North Dakota courts and the interface with the FBI. The project is scheduled for completion in September 2014.
(CA/NCF)