Assembly Passes Legislation To Prevent Severely
Mentally Ill Residents And Violent Felons From
Purchasing Firearms

Assembly, Senate and Governor's Agreement Brings New York Into Compliance
With Federal Background Check Legislation

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Assembly Codes Committee Chair Joseph Lentol and Assembly Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Chair Peter Rivera announced the Assembly's passage this week of legislation (A.11758/Lentol) aimed at preventing tragedies similar to the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre by authorizing greater information sharing between state agencies and those performing firearm purchase background checks. The bill is the result of a three-way agreement with the Governor and Senate.

The legislation will bring New York State into compliance with federal laws enacted this year. It aims to close reporting loopholes that until now may allow persons to maintain possession of or acquire deadly weapons. Under federal law, individuals who have suffered or currently suffer from certain mental illness are barred from possessing or purchasing handguns and long arms.

The legislation will require the state Office of Mental Health and state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities to collect and transmit records for the purpose of responding to queries to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to the FBI's Criminal Justice Information System. Additionally, the state Office of Court Administration, through its chief administrative judge, will also collect and transmit records of individuals who have been adjudicated unable to contract and manage their own affairs. Federal legislation mandates that these persons are unable to possess or acquire handguns or long arms.

"For more than a decade, the Assembly has advocated for a sound and responsible gun safety plan that ensures guns do not fall into the wrong hands," said Silver (D-Manhattan). "The passage of this legislation creates an important tool in determining the fitness of potential gun-owners and helps to prevent against a reoccurrence of the senseless shootings that have devastated the national conscience."

"Our communities are safer when those who pose a risk of harming others or themselves are not permitted to purchase or own firearms," said Lentol (D-Brooklyn). "The Assembly applauds Governor Paterson for helping to improve public safety by providing a means of vetting dangerous persons and those suffering from severe psychiatric illness from gun ownership."

"It is essential that in a society where over four million new handguns and tens of thousands of other firearms are manufactured and sold every year, we strengthen efforts to keep these weapons away from those that pose a great risk to the general public," said Rivera (D-Bronx). "This legislation complements such efforts while at the same time not stigmatizing those in our communities who have mental illnesses. This is another step in our march towards a less violent society."