Assembly Bill A8574

                            
                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  8574

                       2011-2012 Regular Sessions

                          I N  A S S E M B L Y

                           September 13, 2011
                               ___________

Introduced  by M. of A. CERETTO -- read once and referred to the Commit-
  tee 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:

  Section  1.  Subdivision  4  of  section  400.00  of the penal law, as
amended by chapter 331 of the  law  of  2005,  is  amended  to  read  as
follows:
  4.  Investigation.  Before a license is issued or renewed, there shall
be an investigation of all statements required in the application by the
duly constituted police authorities of the locality where such  applica-
tion is made. For that purpose, the records of the appropriate office of
the  department  of mental hygiene concerning previous or present mental
illness of the applicant shall be available for inspection by the inves-
tigating officer of the police authority OR IN  NIAGARA  COUNTY  RECORDS
MAY BE ACCESSED BY A CERTIFIED EMPLOYEE OF THE COUNTY CLERK'S OFFICE WHO
IS  AUTHORIZED  TO  ACCESS  CLINICAL  RECORDS IN ACCORDANCE WITH SECTION
33.13 OF THE MENTAL HYGIENE LAW. In  order  to  ascertain  any  previous
criminal  record,  the investigating officer shall take the fingerprints
and physical descriptive data in quadruplicate  of  each  individual  by
whom  the application is signed and verified. Two copies of such finger-
prints shall be taken on standard fingerprint cards eight inches square,
and one copy may be taken on a card supplied for  that  purpose  by  the
federal  bureau of investigation; provided, however, that in the case of
a corporate applicant that has already been issued a dealer in  firearms
license  and seeks to operate a firearm dealership at a second or subse-
quent location, the original fingerprints on file may be used to  ascer-
tain  any criminal record in the second or subsequent application unless
any of the corporate officers have changed since the prior  application,

 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD13352-02-1
              

A. 8574                             2

in  which  case  the  new corporate officer shall comply with procedures
governing an initial application for such license. When  completed,  one
standard  card  shall  be  forwarded  to and retained by the division of
criminal  justice  services  in  the  executive department, at Albany. A
search of the files of such division and  written  notification  of  the
results of the search to the investigating officer shall be made without
unnecessary delay.  Thereafter, such division shall notify the licensing
officer  and the executive department, division of state police, Albany,
of any criminal record of the applicant filed therein subsequent to  the
search  of its files. A second standard card, or the one supplied by the
federal bureau of investigation, as the case may be, shall be  forwarded
to that bureau at Washington with a request that the files of the bureau
be searched and notification of the results of the search be made to the
investigating  police  authority.  The failure or refusal of the federal
bureau of investigation to make the fingerprint check  provided  for  in
this  section shall not constitute the sole basis for refusal to issue a
permit pursuant to the provisions of this section. Of the remaining  two
fingerprint  cards,  one  shall  be filed with the executive department,
division of state police, Albany, within ten days after issuance of  the
license,  and  the  other  remain  on file with the investigating police
authority. No such fingerprints may be inspected  by  any  person  other
than a peace officer, who is acting pursuant to his special duties, or a
police  officer,  except  on  order  of a judge or justice of a court of
record either upon notice to the licensee  or  without  notice,  as  the
judge  or  justice may deem appropriate. Upon completion of the investi-
gation, the police authority shall report the results to  the  licensing
officer without unnecessary delay.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately.