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History
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.645
- Referred to codes
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Allows a member of the Niagara county clerk's office to access mental hygiene records to assist in the firearm permit application investigation process
In Assembly Committee · Codes · Sponsor John Ceretto
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S6040
Title of bill
An act amending the penal law, in relation to allowing a member of the Niagara county clerk's office to access mental health records for firearm license applications
Purpose or general idea of bill
To allow the Niagara County Clerk's office to access mental hygiene records to assist in the firearm permit application investigation process. Access will only be granted to a certified employee of the Niagara County Clerk's office who is authorized to access clinical records in accordance with section 33.13 of the Mental Hygiene Law.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 of the bill amends subdivision 4 of Section 400.00 of the Penal Law to empower an authorized member of the Niagara County Clerk's office to access the appropriate records of the Office of Mental Health concerning previous or present mental illness of an applicant for a firearms license.
Section 2 of the bill is the effective date.
Justification
Currently in Niagara County there has been a severe backlog of pistol permit applications. It appears that the Office of Mental Health (OMH) is behind in processing the background checks due to staffing reductions from budget cuts. The Niagara County Clerk's office, which processes the permits, has suggested that it can perform the requisite background checks and reduce the time to close on permit processing by over 60%. The Clerk's office has indicated it understands that OMH deals with sensitive information, and has a staff member who has the necessary security clearance to perform this function.
Prior legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
Undetermined savings to the State of New York.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.