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« Legislative News Federal Firearm Reporting Causes Challenges for Clerks
OCA Publishes Support Publications for Compliance
By Nanette Forbes
TAC Legislative Staff
The 81st Legislature passed HB 3352 to bring Texas in closer  compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NICS). The NICS was created under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 to provide federal firearms license issuers immediate information on persons who may be disqualified from purchasing firearms.
The law has a significant impact on county and district clerks, who must report information on the following types of cases by September 2010: - Commitments for temporary or extended inpatient mental health services;
- Acquittals in criminal cases for reasons of insanity or lack of mental responsibility, whether or not the person was ordered to receive inpatient treatment or residential care under Chapter 46C, Code of Criminal Procedure;
- Commitments of a person determined to have mental retardation for long-term placement in a residential care facility under Chapter 593, Health and Safety Code;
- Adult guardianships; and,
- Cases in which a person is found to be incompetent to stand trial under Chapter 46B, Code of Criminal Procedure.
The most challenging aspect of the new law is the required reporting of orders issued by the court for the preceding 20 years. Each clerk of the court must prepare and forward the required information in electronic format to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Criminal Justice Information System website.
For current court orders, court clerks are required to submit the information to DPS no later than the 30th day after the date of each new applicable court order.
DPS then forwards the data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation who inputs the information into the NICS database system. DPS also sends any corrected or updated information received from the courts to the FBI.
The Office of Court Administration (OCA) has prepared a publication titled “Frequently Asked Questions: Reporting Mental Health Cases Required by HB 3352 (Q&A)” to assist clerks by providing answers to general questions and background on the necessary reporting. In addition, OCA developed a survey, “Reporting Mental Health Cases Required by HB 3352,” to collect information to provide “policy makers with concrete information about the extent to which the requirements of the bill will be successfully implemented by Sept. 1 and about the difficulties that clerks may be facing in trying to report the required information.”
In compiling case information for older cases, many clerks have encountered difficulties with information on mental health cases due to confidentiality requirements. The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) may have the information needed to assist in reporting.
“The department maintains a data base of information on individuals committed to the state hospitals and is willing to provide information for your county for the time period mandated by the bill,” according to the OCA. “A judge responsible for commitments in your county (whether it is the county judge, statutory county judge, statutory probate judge or a district judge) must issue an order requesting the information from DSHS.
To make this process as simple as possible, the judge only needs to issue an order requesting the information specified in ‘Appendix A’ and attach ‘Appendix A’ to the order.”
Appendix A is located in the OCA publication Q&A.
In 2009 and 2010, federal grant funds have been made available to assist states in providing the required information to the NICS, and “prescribes grant penalties for non-compliance with the Act’s record completeness goals.”
In order to apply for grant funds, a state must satisfy substantial reporting compliance in advance of receiving funds. State grants “shall be used by the states … in conjunction with units of local government and state and local courts, to establish or upgrade information and identification technologies for firearms eligibility determinations.”
It is important for counties to submit the required information by the Sept. 1 deadline to show substantial compliance with the NICS reporting requirements. This will give the state the opportunity to apply for federal grant funds in 2011.
For additional information, please contact TAC legislative staffer Nanette Forbes at (800) 456-5974 or nanettef@county.org.
For More Information
The Q&A publication in its entirety
Sample administrative order
Fill out the online OCA clerk survey or download the survey in PDF format
23 July 2010
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