2018 Oklahoma NICS Act Record Improvement Project

The NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007, P. L. 110-180 ("NIAA"), was initially signed into law by the President on January 8, 2008 (reauthorized by Title VI of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, P.L. 115-141). The NIAA 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 NIAA authorizes grants to be made in a manner consistent with the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP).

Under this award, the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council will transfer funds to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office to purchase and implement a modern case management and reporting software system with the ability to electronically submit timely and accurate charging and case disposition information on approximately 15,000 individuals to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSB) for inclusion in the national systems. The system will convert twenty-two years of charging and case disposition information on hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma County criminal prosecutions contained within the antiquated case management software to the new software platform. Once the data extraction and conversion to the new software platform is complete and accurate, data will begin to be electronically submitted to OSBI for inclusion in NICS, including historical charging and case disposition information from 1997 to the present. The Oklahoma District Attorneys Council will also transfer funds to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) to improve the accuracy, completeness, and accessibility of criminal history record information in state repositories and the NICS Indices, focusing efforts on identifying, flagging, and making immediately accessible to NICS the records of persons prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms for domestic violence convictions and other federal prohibitors.

(CA/NCF)