BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 220

By: Goodwin

Community Safety, Select

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Under state law, if a handgun license has been revoked or suspended, the license is supposed to be surrendered to the Department of Public Safety (DPS). However, DPS reports that as of the end of March 2023, there were more than 6,200 outstanding revoked or suspended handgun licenses. If a handgun license has been suspended or revoked, the former license holder no longer has the right to bypass an otherwise required background check under the National Instant Criminal Background Check System when attempting to obtain a firearm from a federally licensed firearm dealer. However, if a license is not returned as otherwise required, the license can still be used to try to circumvent the background check system, as the license, although revoked or suspended, will still show the original expiration date. C.S.H.B. 220 seeks to address this issue by creating mechanisms for peace officers and court officers to reclaim revoked or suspended handgun licenses and by providing for the creation of a database for use by federally licensed firearms dealers to check if a handgun license has been revoked or suspended.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the public safety director of the Department of Public Safety in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 220 amends the Government Code to require the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to maintain a current record of license numbers with respect to each unexpired handgun license that is suspended or revoked and, not later than January 1, 2024, to establish and make available on DPS's publicly accessible website a searchable database of license numbers that allows a federally licensed firearms dealer to determine whether the person to whom a firearm is being transferred may use the license as a permit that allows the transaction to proceed without a background check as provided by federal law. The bill requires DPS to notify each person in Texas who is a federally licensed firearms dealer not later than January 1, 2024, by email or mail, of the database and include a link to the website where the database is posted.

C.S.H.B. 220 prohibits DPS from including any information in the database that would otherwise identify the person to whom the license was issued. The bill requires DPS, not later than the fifth working day after the applicable period of license suspension ends or after a revoked license is reinstated, to update the database to reflect that the license is no longer suspended or has been reinstated, as applicable.

C.S.H.B. 220 prohibits DPS, each other state agency, and each political subdivision from collecting or maintaining a record of information submitted for the purpose of searching the database, including information that may indicate how frequently a particular license number has been searched in the database. The bill authorizes the public safety director of DPS to adopt rules to implement the bill's provisions providing for the creation of the database.

C.S.H.B. 220 requires a federally licensed firearms dealer, before transferring a firearm to a person who presents an apparently valid unexpired handgun license as a permit that would allow the transaction to proceed without a background check as provided by federal law, to verify that the license is not currently suspended or revoked either by direct communication with DPS or by referencing the database. The bill establishes that such a dealer who transfers a firearm to a person who presents a license is not subject to civil liability for failing to take either such action to verify the validity of the person's license before the transfer. The bill requires DPS, each time a dealer requests information from DPS to verify the validity of a license, to provide the dealer with a unique identification number to confirm that the request was made. If the dealer determines that a person's license is suspended or revoked, the dealer may transfer a firearm to the person after conducting a national instant criminal background check in the manner required by federal law and verifying that the person may lawfully possess a firearm. The bill authorizes the dealer to proceed with the transfer and treat the license as a valid permit that would allow the transaction to proceed without a background check if DPS is unable to immediately verify the validity of the person's handgun license. These provisions apply only to a transfer that occurs on or after January 1, 2024.

C.S.H.B. 220 authorizes a peace officer to seize a handgun license holder's suspended or revoked license and requires a peace officer who does so to, not later than the fifth working day after the date of the seizure, return the license to DPS or, if the officer seizes the license as evidence of an offense, to notify DPS that the license was seized.

C.S.H.B. 220 establishes that, if a handgun license holder is convicted of or charged with an offense or becomes the subject of a protective order the consequence of which is disqualification from possessing a firearm or continuing to hold a handgun license, an officer of the court is required to accept voluntary surrender of the license or otherwise seize it, as appropriate. The bill requires an officer who seizes or accepts voluntary surrender of a handgun license under the bill to submit the license to DPS at its Austin headquarters not later than the fifth working day after the date the license is seized or surrendered along with a copy of any court order, judgment, or other documentation relevant to the reason for the seizure or surrender of the license.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.

COMPARISON OF INTRODUCED AND SUBSTITUTE

While C.S.H.B. 220 may differ from the introduced in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following summarizes the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.

The substitute revises the provisions in the introduced providing for the creation of the database of suspended and revoked handgun licenses as follows:

·         replaces the reference in the introduced to the database being used by any person transferring a firearm with a reference to the database being used only by a federally licensed firearms dealer;

·         includes a prohibition absent from the introduced against DPS, each other state agency, and each political subdivision collecting or maintaining a record of information submitted for the purpose of searching the database, including information that may indicate how frequently a particular license number has been searched in the database; and

·         includes a requirement absent from the introduced for DPS to notify each federally licensed firearms dealer in Texas of the database established and to include a link to the website where the database is posted.

The substitute retains the requirement from the introduced for a federally licensed firearms dealer to verify that an apparently valid unexpired license presented to the dealer when transferring a firearm as a permit that would allow the transfer to proceed under federal law without conducting a background check is not currently suspended or revoked, but omits the blanket prohibition against the transfer proceeding if the license is not verified. Instead, the substitute includes provisions absent from the introduced that, as follows:

·         authorize a dealer who determines that a license is suspended or revoked to transfer a firearm to the person after conducting a national instant criminal background check and verifying that the person may legally possess a firearm; and

·         authorize a dealer to proceed with a transfer and treat the license presented as a permit that would allow the transfer to occur without a background check if DPS is unable to immediately verify the validity of the person's license.

The substitute includes a provision absent from the introduced exempting such a dealer from civil liability for failing to perform one of those actions to verify the validity of the person's license before the transfer. The substitute also includes a requirement absent from the introduced for DPS, each time a dealer requests information, to verify the validity of a person's handgun license, to provide the dealer with a unique identification number to confirm the request was made.

The substitute omits the provisions from the introduced that provided the following with respect to a dealer who determines that a handgun license presented to the dealer is suspended or revoked:

·         the dealer is prohibited from considering the fact that the person previously held a valid license and the fact that the person no longer holds a valid license in determining whether transferring a firearm to that person is prohibited by state or federal law; and

·         the dealer is required to notify DPS of the following not later than the fifth working day after the determination that:

o   the person presented a license to the dealer during the applicable transaction in lieu of submitting to the national instant criminal background check;

o   the license was suspended or revoked; and

o   either the person failed the national instant criminal background check or refused to complete the sale or transfer after presenting the suspended or revoked license.

The substitute omits the provisions from the introduced revising the conduct constituting an unlawful weapons transfer and creating a new unlawful weapons transfer offense.