Assembly Bill A9978

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   9978
 
                           I N  A S S E M B L Y
 
                               March 2, 2018
                                ___________
 
 Introduced by M. of A. HUNTER -- read once and referred to the Committee
   on Codes
 
 AN  ACT  to  amend the penal law, in relation to access to foreign state
   records
 
   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 1 of the laws of 2013, 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, including but not limited to such records as may be acces-
 sible to the division of state police or division  of  criminal  justice
 services  pursuant  to section 400.02 of this article. 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 investigating  officer  of  the
 police  authority.  WHERE THE APPLICANT IS DOMICILED IN A FOREIGN STATE,
 THE INVESTIGATION SHALL INCLUDE INQUIRY OF THE FOREIGN STATE FOR RECORDS
 CONCERNING THE PREVIOUS OR PRESENT MENTAL ILLNESS OF THE APPLICANT, AND,
 TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY FOR INSPECTION BY THE INVESTIGATING OFFICER, THE
 APPLICANT SHALL EXECUTE A WAIVER OF CONFIDENTIALITY OF  SUCH  RECORD  IN
 SUCH FORM AS MAY BE REQUIRED BY THE FOREIGN STATE. 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  fingerprints  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 subsequent location, the original fingerprints on  file  may
 be  used  to  ascertain  any criminal record in the second or subsequent
 application unless any of the corporate officers have changed since  the
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
              

                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD14477-01-8

 A. 9978                             2
 
 prior  application, 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. 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  OR  HER  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 inves-
 tigation, the police authority shall report the results to the licensing
 officer without unnecessary delay.
   § 2. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
 have become a law.