Improve Hawaii's Reporting of Persons Prohibited from Possessing a Firearm to NICS

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).

Hawaii will continue to build upon prior funding from the NICS Act Record Improvement Program (NARIP) to the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center (HCJDC). This year, HCJDC’s priority is to establish and convene HI’s NICS Task Force and develop the state’s NICS Record Improvement Plan. While developing the NICS Record Improvement Plan, Hawaii will work to ensure that all convicted offenders are identified through fingerprints so their convictions will be available via the statewide criminal history repository as well as the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and the Interstate Identification Index (III) by making enhancements to CJIS-Hawaii with the replacement of hardware and software. The HCJDC will work with the Department of the Attorney General’s Investigations Division to locate and book offenders convicted of criminal offenses in penal summons and/or prosecution via complaint type of cases. Because these offenders were never booked on their charges, the conviction information is not part of their criminal history; therefore, background checks conducted for firearms or other purposes will be incomplete. HCJDC will procure the services of a third party vendor to scan and convert the fingerprint cards into an electronic format in order to be submitted to the FBI and assigned a universal control number.

(CA/NCF)