“A bill 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 amends 18 U.S.C. §922 (unlawful firearms acts) by (1) striking subsection (s); (2) redesignating subsection (t) as subsection (s) and modifying it to extend National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) requirements to transfers of firearms or ammunition (previously firearms only) by non-licensees through a federal firearms licensee (FFL), including clarifications on age restrictions for firearms, terminology for prohibited young transferees, and replacement of "chief law enforcement officer" with "relevant chief of police, sheriff, or other equivalent official, or designee"; (3) inserting new subsection (t) prohibiting non-FFLs from transferring ammunition to other non-FFLs unless an FFL takes prior possession and complies with subsection (s) background check requirements—after providing notice of the prohibition and obtaining transferee certification—with exceptions for law enforcement and military personnel acting in official duties, certain family transfers or gifts (i.e., spouses, domestic partners, parents-children, siblings, aunts/uncles-nieces/nephews, grandparents-grandchildren), inheritance, temporary transfers to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm (including domestic violence), Attorney General-approved transfers, and temporary transfers at shooting ranges, for hunting/trapping/fishing, or in the transferor's presence if no reason to believe misuse or transferee prohibition; and (4) making conforming amendments to update statutory cross-references to the revised subsection lettering.
This section establishes rules of construction clarifying 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 (i.e., the Gun Control Act of 1968 provision preserving state law on firearms unless it directly conflicts with federal law) to enact laws on the same subject matter as this Act.