“To prevent the purchase of ammunition by prohibited purchasers.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states the purpose of the Act to enhance the background check process to prevent ammunition purchases by individuals prohibited from doing so under federal and state law.
This section strikes 18 U.S.C. 922(s), which required national instant criminal background check system (NICS) checks for certain handgun transfers by non-federal firearms licensees (FFLs); redesignates subsection (t)—which required NICS checks for certain transfers of rifles and shotguns by non-FFLs—as subsection (s); and modifies new subsection (s) to extend those NICS requirements to ammunition transfers (i.e., inserting "or ammunition" after "firearm" each place it appears, except specified subparagraphs), clarify applicability to firearms, and replace "chief law enforcement officer" with "relevant chief of police, sheriff, or other equivalent official, or designee." The section further inserts new subsection (t), which— (1) prohibits any non-licensee from transferring ammunition to another non-licensee unless an FFL first takes possession of the ammunition and complies with all chapter requirements (including new subsection (s) NICS checks) as if transferring from the FFL's inventory, with return to transferor exempt if transfer cannot complete; (2) exempts such transfers to/from law enforcement agencies/officers, armed private security professionals, or Armed Forces members acting in official duties; loans/gifts between spouses, domestic partners, parents/stepparents and children/stepchildren, siblings, aunts/uncles and nieces/nephews, or grandparents and grandchildren; inheritance transfers; temporary transfers necessary to prevent imminent death/great bodily harm (e.g., domestic violence); Attorney General-approved transfers under IRC §5812; and temporary transfers at shooting ranges/galleries, for hunting/trapping/fishing under conditions, or in transferor's presence if no reason to believe transferee prohibited or will use in crime; and (3) requires FFLs to provide non-licensees with notice of the prohibition and obtain certification on an Attorney General form prior to transfer. (Thus, private ammunition transfers generally require NICS background checks via FFLs, with listed exceptions.) The section makes technical and conforming amendments to 18 U.S.C. §§922(y), 925A, and 925B; the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act; the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007; and the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2012, to update subsection references.
This section provides rules of construction stating that nothing in this Act or its amendments may be construed to (1) authorize the establishment, directly or indirectly, of a national firearms or ammunition registry; or (2) interfere with the authority of a State, under 18 U.S.C. §927 (which preserves state firearms regulatory authority absent direct conflict with federal law), to enact a law on the same subject matter as this Act.