[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 724 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 724

 To assist State and local governments in conducting community gun buy 
                             back programs.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 11, 1999

     Mr. Kennedy of Rhode Island (for himself and Mr. Blagojevich) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To assist State and local governments in conducting community gun buy 
                             back programs.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Gun Buy Back Partnership Grant Act 
of 1999''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; PURPOSE.

    (a) Findings.--The Congress finds that--
            (1) 36,000 Americans are killed by guns every year;
            (2) 10 children are killed by handguns every day;
            (3) guns are present in almost 35 percent of all American 
        homes, and the presence of a gun in a home triples the risk of 
        homicide in that home;
            (4) nearly $4,000,000,000 is spent every year on health 
        care expenditures for firearms-related injuries; and
            (5) according to studies, between 1985 and 1994, 709 law 
        enforcement officers in the United States were feloniously 
        killed in the line of duty, and more than 92 percent of such 
        law enforcement officers were killed by the use of a gun.
    (b) Purpose.--The purpose of this Act is to reduce the number of 
guns on the streets by helping State and local law enforcement 
departments conduct community gun buy back programs.

SEC. 3. PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.

    (a) Grants.--The Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance may 
make grants to States or units of local government to conduct community 
gun buy back programs.
    (b) Distribution and Use of Funds.--The Director of the Bureau of 
Justice Assistance shall distribute each grant made under subsection 
(a) directly to the State or unit of local government involved, which 
shall use the grant only to conduct a community gun buy back program.
    (c) Minimum Amount.--Unless all applications submitted by any State 
or unit of local government pursuant to this Act have been funded, each 
qualifying State or unit of local government shall be allocated in each 
fiscal year pursuant to subsection (a) not less than 0.50 percent of 
the total amount appropriated for the fiscal year pursuant to this Act.
    (d) Maximum Amount.--During a fiscal year, the Director of the 
Bureau of Justice Assistance shall not, under this Act, provide a 
qualifying State or unit of local government with more than 5 percent 
of the total amount appropriated for the fiscal year pursuant to this 
Act.
    (e) Matching Funds.--A grant made under this Act shall not be used 
to cover more than 50 percent of the cost of conducting a community gun 
buy back program, except to the extent that the Director of the Bureau 
of Justice Assistance waives such requirement, in whole or in part, 
after determining the existence of a fiscal hardship on the part of the 
grant recipient.
    (f) Preferential Consideration.--In awarding grants under this Act, 
the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance shall give 
preferential consideration to an application from a jurisdiction which 
will conduct a community gun buy back program that will destroy all 
guns received by the program. For purposes of the preceding sentence a 
community gun buy back program which will donate to a State or local 
museum for display any inoperable gun that is a curio or relic or that 
has historic significance shall be treated in the same manner as a 
community gun buy back program that will destroy all guns received by 
the program.

SEC. 4. APPLICATIONS.

    (a) State Applications.--To request a grant under this Act, the 
chief executive of a State shall submit an application to the Director 
of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, signed by the Attorney General of 
the State requesting the grant, in such form and containing such 
information as the Director may reasonably require.
    (b) Local Applications.--To request a grant under this Act, the 
chief executive of a unit of local government shall submit an 
application to the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, signed 
by the chief law enforcement officer of the unit of local government 
requesting the grant, in such form and containing such information as 
the Director may reasonably require.
    (c) Renewal.--A State or unit of local government shall be eligible 
to receive a grant under this Act annually.
    (d) Regulations.--Not later than 90 days after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance 
shall promulgate regulations to implement this Act, which shall specify 
the information that must be included and the requirements that the 
States and units of local government must meet in submitting the 
applications for grants under this Act.

SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Community gun buy back program.--The term ``community 
        gun buy back program'' means a program conducted by State or 
        local law enforcement authorities under which such authorities 
        purchase or accept donations of guns from persons desiring to 
        dispose of them.
            (2) Gun.--The term ``gun'' means a firearm (as defined in 
        section 921(a)(3) of title 18, United States Code).
            (3) Qualifying state or unit of local government.--The term 
        ``qualifying State or unit of local government'' means a State 
        or unit of local government whose application for a grant under 
        this Act meets the applicable requirements prescribed by or 
        under this Act.
            (4) State.--The term ``State'' means each of the 50 States, 
        the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 
        Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

SEC. 6. LIMITATIONS ON AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    For grants under this Act, there are authorized to be appropriated 
to the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance not more than 
$15,000,000 for each fiscal year.
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