S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
6040
I N S E N A T E
(PREFILED)
January 4, 2012
___________
Introduced by Sen. MAZIARZ -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT amending the penal law, in relation to allowing a member of the
Niagara county clerk's office to access mental health records for
firearm license applications
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 4 of section 400.00 of the penal law, as
2 amended by chapter 331 of the law of 2005, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 4. Investigation. Before a license is issued or renewed, there shall
5 be an investigation of all statements required in the application by the
6 duly constituted police authorities of the locality where such applica-
7 tion is made. For that purpose, the records of the appropriate office of
8 the department of mental hygiene concerning previous or present mental
9 illness of the applicant shall be available for inspection by the inves-
10 tigating officer of the police authority OR IN NIAGARA COUNTY RECORDS
11 MAY BE ACCESSED BY A CERTIFIED EMPLOYEE OF THE COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE WHO
12 IS AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS CLINICAL RECORDS IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION
13 33.13 OF THE MENTAL HYGIENE LAW. In order to ascertain any previous
14 criminal record, the investigating officer shall take the fingerprints
15 and physical descriptive data in quadruplicate of each individual by
16 whom the application is signed and verified. Two copies of such finger-
17 prints shall be taken on standard fingerprint cards eight inches square,
18 and one copy may be taken on a card supplied for that purpose by the
19 federal bureau of investigation; provided, however, that in the case of
20 a corporate applicant that has already been issued a dealer in firearms
21 license and seeks to operate a firearm dealership at a second or subse-
22 quent location, the original fingerprints on file may be used to ascer-
23 tain any criminal record in the second or subsequent application unless
24 any of the corporate officers have changed since the prior application,
25 in which case the new corporate officer shall comply with procedures
26 governing an initial application for such license. When completed, one
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD13352-02-1
S. 6040 2
1 standard card shall be forwarded to and retained by the division of
2 criminal justice services in the executive department, at Albany. A
3 search of the files of such division and written notification of the
4 results of the search to the investigating officer shall be made without
5 unnecessary delay. Thereafter, such division shall notify the licensing
6 officer and the executive department, division of state police, Albany,
7 of any criminal record of the applicant filed therein subsequent to the
8 search of its files. A second standard card, or the one supplied by the
9 federal bureau of investigation, as the case may be, shall be forwarded
10 to that bureau at Washington with a request that the files of the bureau
11 be searched and notification of the results of the search be made to the
12 investigating police authority. The failure or refusal of the federal
13 bureau of investigation to make the fingerprint check provided for in
14 this section shall not constitute the sole basis for refusal to issue a
15 permit pursuant to the provisions of this section. Of the remaining two
16 fingerprint cards, one shall be filed with the executive department,
17 division of state police, Albany, within ten days after issuance of the
18 license, and the other remain on file with the investigating police
19 authority. No such fingerprints may be inspected by any person other
20 than a peace officer, who is acting pursuant to his special duties, or a
21 police officer, except on order of a judge or justice of a court of
22 record either upon notice to the licensee or without notice, as the
23 judge or justice may deem appropriate. Upon completion of the investi-
24 gation, the police authority shall report the results to the licensing
25 officer without unnecessary delay.
26 S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.