STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3071

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2629

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CRIMINAL HISTORY RECORD CHECKS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to promote public safety by authorizing county police departments to enroll firearms permit applicants and individuals who are registering their firearms into a criminal record monitoring service that is used to alert police when an owner of a firearm is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the country.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General, Honolulu Police Department, and two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the National Rifle Association, Hawaii Rifle Association, Valley Isle Sport Shooters, and more than sixty individuals.

     Your Committee finds that properly updated criminal background checks on firearms permit applicants are crucial to the safety of the public.  The rap back program is a service of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that provides continuous criminal record monitoring for authorized government agencies, including law enforcement agencies, and notifies those agencies when a specified individual is arrested for a criminal offense anywhere in the nation.  This program, coupled with thorough background inquiries of firearms permit applicants, will ensure that law enforcement agencies in Hawaii can more effectively screen prospective firearm owners and receive warning when a firearms owner has been disqualified from firearms ownership due to criminal activities in another state.  Your Committee further finds that the checks performed by the county police departments for firearms permitting and registration purposes include inquiries separate from the criminal history record check conducted through the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the issuing authority of a firearms permit and the police department registering a firearm shall perform inquiries on an applicant using various national databases and conduct criminal history record checks; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________

CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair