STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3487

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2629

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, 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 authorize county police departments to enroll firearms permit applicants and individuals who are registering their firearms into a criminal record monitoring service 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; Police Department, City and County of Honolulu; and two individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Members of the National Rifle Association of America, Hawaii Rifle Association, and twenty-one individuals.

     Your Committee finds that properly updated criminal background information on firearms permit applicants is 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.  By authorizing the county police departments to enroll firearms permit applications and individuals who are registering their firearms into the rap back program, this measure 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 has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2016; 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 Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2629, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair