There are some significant changes due to take effect early next month in the Empire State.
New York is switching from a jurisdiction in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) conducts firearms-related NICS background checks, to one in which the New York State Police will conduct all firearm and ammunition-related background checks using both NICS and a pending “statewide license and record database.”
This shift is occurring due to legislation enacted last year, NY Exec. Law § 228, which authorizes the state police to act as the “point of contact” for background checks required under “18 U.S.C. sec. 922(t), all federal regulations and applicable guidelines adopted pursuant thereto, and the national instant criminal background check system for the purchase of firearms and ammunition.”
That law directs the Superintendent of State Police to establish a “centralized bureau” for firearm and ammunition background checks. NY Exec. Law § 228(7) specifies that, within 60 days of July 15, 2023, the superintendent must “notify each licensed dealer holding a permit to sell firearms” to submit requests for background checks to the state police, which appears to be an indirect way of setting a deadline of September 13 (the date the 60-day period expires) for the system to be operational.
Section § 228(5) allows the state to charge fees for background checks using this state database, which fees cannot “exceed the total amount of direct and indirect costs incurred by the bureau in performing such background check.” One source indicates that these fees will add an additional $9 (firearms) and $2.50 (ammunition) to purchases and transfers.
The shift to a state “point of contact” jurisdiction occurs in tandem with a second change, a related but separate development under a state law that mandates background checks for ammunition transfers by “sellers of ammunition.” This background check requirement dates back to the SAFE Act of 2013 and requires that a state database for ammunition background checks be used (federal law, 28 C.F.R. 25.6, limits the use of the NICS system for checks “only in connection with a proposed firearm transfer as required by the Brady Act. FFLs are strictly prohibited from initiating a NICS background check for any other purpose”).
This ammunition background check requirement comes with a statutory precondition and grace period before it may take effect. Specifically, the state police superintendent must first “certify” that “the statewide license and record database established pursuant to [NY Penal Law § 400.02] and the statewide license and record database established for ammunition sales are operational,” followed by a 30-day period after which the ammunition background check requirement is in effect. In a classic example of the New York’s legislature’s signature style of “pass gun control laws first, figure out if they work later,” it became apparent once the SAFE Act was passed that the ammunition background check mandate was unachievable at the time. The-then police superintendent advised that his agency lacked the technology to implement the requirement and had “no idea when ammunition background checks… will begin across the state.”
A further complication is that the entire ammunition background check database project was placed in abeyance due to a 2015 memorandum of understanding (MOU).
The agreement, entered into by the Cuomo Administration and then-Republican Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan, promised that no state money would be spent on implementing the ammunition background check database until a cost plan had been approved by the parties. The MOU further stipulated that any certification of the database as operational would not be made until the parties had approved a plan on its implementation. Last year, however, Governor Kathy Hochul indicated she was aware of the “old MOU that was signed related to ammunition sales after laws were passed the decade ago, it was an administration document between the prior administration and the Senate Republicans,” but decided to ignore it – “we are literally tearing it up and New York will now require and conduct background checks for all ammunition purchases.”
There is no indication on either the state police or the governor’s websites that the certification of the statewide license and record database as operational has occurred.
However, the NY State Police website currently advises that the “background check requirements imposed on all retail sellers of ammunition are scheduled to take effect on September 13, 2023.”
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
Clearing background checks never changes nothing. Leftist paranoids reserve the right not to trust you anyway!
Well , they are all paranoid, until they need someone with a gun, because of their whack job psycho far left policies… never mind the peasants, the rich have their own body guards with guns… all the while touting “defund the police, I hate guns, 2A people are lunatics”
Ok, calm your tits down.
All this nonsense was done without any input from WE THE PEOPLE .The democrat MARXIST party has destroyed NYS ,and any thing else it touched.The added fees/tax $ can go to support all the illegal aliens pouring into the state.
AKA vote buying
One has to ask, “Why the change?”
Simple, they’re going to record every background check, probably including information about the firearm purchased, to build a list of owners.
That would be illegal per 18 U.S. Code § 926(a)(3). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/926
WHEN has something being illegal stopped a leftist???
I never said it would stop them nor would I. Democratics are the epitome of both “the ends justify the means” and “laws for thee but not for me.”
The truth to finding out what is f’ed up is to follow the money. It’s always the money!!! They have made it so that they can say, “it’s only a few bucks, you’ll hardly miss a few bucks, what’s the big deal”. Meanwhile that “few bucks” is multiplied by millions of purchases over time, some of it is going to end up in someone’s pockets, mark my words. Maybe not right away, while it’s fresh on everybody’s mind, but wait awhile when the new has worn off, and BINGO.
“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?”
That’s the Roman way of asking “Who’s going to arrest the cops?”
. . . . ALL TO BUILD A REGISTRY!!!* *I wonder how “suspicious” a NY Citizen will look to the NY State Police if they are buying 5.56 NATO ammunition when they do not have a registered AR type rifle in the registry. I wonder if the state will add their name as a probable owner of a “featureless” AR rifle for consideration later during confiscation. NY will now have the means to build a confiscation registry, and an immediate Second Amendment OFF SWITCH for both guns and ammo to use at their whim whether there is a crisis or… Read more »
PS – Oh, and just so that no one worries, they log your OCCUPATION with every sale that is recorded so that if you are one of their active or retired enforcement officials you won’t be tied up in any scrutiny. So the protection safeguards are in place, just so no one worries.
There is no doubt that the unethical New York State Police will record all firearms with serial numbers and document the owner with finger prints; in addition there are many FFL’s in New York State who are cowards and lick the butts of the Police and Feds…the require a copy of the New York State Driver License with picture and attach it to the NICS Form for 20 years to impress the ATF Inspectors like The Suffolk Sportsman in Smithtown. $9.00 added to the cost of Firearm, and $2.50 for Ammo? The Illegal Criminal Trespass Aliens are exempt from payment… Read more »
Why is the state inserting itself? Background checks are required under 18 U.S.C. sec. 922(t), is a federal, not a state, jurisdictional obligation. Another 2A constitutional lawsuit will have to be filed as soon as someone has standing.
another scotus decision that will be ignored