Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Conforming Regulations

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE <SUBAGY>Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives </SUBAGY> <CFR>27 CFR Part 478 </CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. ATF 2022R-09; AG Order No. 5921-2024] </DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 1140-AA57 </RIN> <SUBJECT>Bipartisan Safer Communities Act Conforming Regulations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Department of Justice. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Direct final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Department of Justice (“Department”) is amending Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) regulations to implement firearms-related definitions and requirements established by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (“BSCA”) and the NICS Denial Notification Act (“NDNA”). These statutes went into effect on June 25, 2022, and October 1, 2022, respectively. It is necessary to make conforming changes to ensure that ATF's regulations are current and consistent with the applicable statutes. For this reason, this direct final rule incorporates many of the BSCA and NDNA provisions that are applicable to ATF. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This final rule is effective on July 18, 2024, unless ATF receives any significant adverse comment by May 20, 2024. If ATF receives a significant adverse comment within the stated time that warrants revising the rule (as described under the Public Participation heading in the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this regulation), the Department will publish notification in the <E T="04">Federal Register,</E> withdrawing this direct final rule before its effective date. </EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">ADDRESSES:</HD> You may submit comments, identified by docket number ATF 2022R-09, by either of the following methods— • <E T="03">Federal eRulemaking portal: www.regulations.gov.</E> Follow the instructions for submitting comments. • <E T="03">Mail:</E> ATF Rulemaking Comments, Mail Stop 6N-518, Office of Regulatory Affairs, Enforcement Programs and Services; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; 99 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20226; <E T="03">ATTN: ATF 2022R-09.</E> <E T="03">Instructions:</E> All submissions received must include the agency name and docket number (ATF 2022R-09) for this direct final rule. All properly completed comments received through either of the methods described above will be posted without change to the Federal eRulemaking portal, <E T="03">www.regulations.gov.</E> This includes any personal identifying information (“PII”) submitted in the body of the comment or as part of a related attachment. Commenters who submit through the Federal eRulemaking portal and who do not want any of their PII posted on the internet should omit PII from the body of their comment or in any uploaded attachments. Commenters who submit through mail should likewise omit their PII from the body of the comment and provide any PII on the cover sheet only. For detailed instructions on submitting comments, the scope of comments for this rulemaking, and additional information on the rulemaking process, see the “Public Participation” heading of the <E T="02">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION</E> section of this rule. <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Helen Koppe, Office of Regulatory Affairs, Enforcement Programs and Services; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; U.S. Department of Justice; 99 New York Ave. NE, Washington, DC 20226; or by telephone at (202) 648-7070 (this is not a toll-free number). </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> The Attorney General is responsible for enforcing the Gun Control Act of 1968 (“GCA”), as amended. This responsibility includes the authority to promulgate regulations necessary to enforce the provisions of the GCA. <E T="03">See</E> 18 U.S.C. 926(a). Congress and the Attorney General have delegated the responsibility for administering and enforcing the GCA to the Director of ATF, subject to the direction of the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General. <E T="03">See</E> 28 U.S.C. 599A(b)(1), (c)(1); 28 CFR 0.130(a)(1)-(2); Treas. Order No. 221(2)(a), (d), 37 FR 11696-97 (June 10, 1972). Accordingly, the Department and ATF have promulgated regulations to implement the GCA. <E T="03">See</E> 27 CFR part 478. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (“BSCA”) (Pub. L. 117-159) was signed into law and became effective on June 25, 2022. It made several changes to the mental health services system, school safety programs, and gun safety laws. Among other provisions, the BSCA requires enhanced background checks for firearm purchasers under 21 years old, addresses Federal firearms license requirements, authorizes funding for State red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs, creates new Federal offenses for firearms trafficking and straw purchases, and partially closes the “boyfriend loophole,” which previously excluded domestic violence offenses involving dating relationships from firearms restrictions that apply to spouses convicted of similar offenses. This direct final rule serves only to incorporate many of these new statutory provisions into existing ATF firearms regulations. Federal law prohibits persons meeting certain criteria from receiving any firearm or ammunition that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, <E T="03">see</E> 18 U.S.C. 922(g), (n), and makes it unlawful to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person who is known or reasonably believed to meet certain criteria, <E T="03">see</E> 18 U.S.C. 922(d). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 (“Brady Act”) (Pub. L. 103-159), as amended, established a background check system that federally licensed manufacturers, dealers, and importers of firearms—otherwise known as Federal firearms licensees (“FFLs”), <E T="03">see</E> 18 U.S.C. 923—must, unless the transfer is excepted, contact for an immediate response on whether transfer of a firearm to, or receipt of a firearm by, a prospective transferee would violate 18 U.S.C. 922 or State, local, or Tribal law. Consistent with the Brady Act's requirements, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (“NICS”) for FFLs to use to initiate a background check in connection with a proposed transfer of a firearm to a non-licensee. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  Prior to passage of the BSCA, 18 U.S.C. 922(d) made it unlawful to sell or otherwise dispose of a firearm or ammunition to persons meeting the same criteria as provided in 18 U.S.C. 922(g) and (n). As discussed further in this preamble, the BSCA added new criteria to section 922(d) to match new prohibitions on straw purchases and firearms trafficking in 18 U.S.C. 932 and 933. </FTNT> When an FFL contacts NICS to initiate a background check, NICS searches three nationally held electronic systems—the National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”), <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> the Interstate Identification Index, <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> and the NICS Index  —that may reveal the existence of a record demonstrating that the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms. If the query of those three systems results in no matching records, NICS provides a “Proceed” response to the FFL. If a record demonstrates that the person is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm, NICS provides the FFL with a “Denied” response. For those transactions for which NICS cannot provide a definitive response of either “Proceed” or “Denied” and must conduct additional research to determine whether the prospective transferee is disqualified from receiving or possessing a firearm by Federal or State law, the transaction will be placed in a “Delayed” status. If NICS has not notified the FFL that the transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing a firearm within three business days of when the FFL initiated the NICS check, the FFL is not federally prohibited from transferring the firearm beginning on the day after the third business day. <E T="03">See</E> 18 U.S.C. 922(t)(1), 27 CFR 478.102, 28 CFR 25.6. However, the BSCA now provides that, in the case of a person under 21 years old, if NICS notifies the FFL that cause exists to further investigate possible disqualifying juvenile records, an FFL may not transfer the firearm until 10 business days have elapsed  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> since the FFL contacted NICS. <E T="03">See</E> 18 U.S.C. 922(t)(1)(C). <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  The NCIC is a national criminal justice information system linking criminal (and authorized non-criminal) justice agencies located in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories and possessions, and select foreign countries to facilitate the cooperative sharing of criminal justice information. The NCIC provides a system to receive and maintain information contributed by participating agencies relating to criminal justice and national security. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  The Interstate Identification Index is part of the FBI's Next Generation Identification system and is used to search for available Federal, State, Tribal, and local criminal history records such as arrests, charges, and case dispositions. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  The NICS Index consists of entries from Federal, State, Tribal, and local agencies relating to persons who are prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under Federal or State law. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  As discussed further below in this preamble, this delay is up through the tenth business day unless the FFL receives a “Proceed” or “Denied” response during that time. </FTNT> As described below, the BSCA also added new disqualif ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 84k characters. 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