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Yumul pushes for NMI’s weapons permit to meet nat’l requirements
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Posted on Apr 24 2006
Rep. Ray N. Yumul has urged the Department of Public Safety to take steps to ensure that the CNMI’s weapons identification card permit would meet the national qualifications requirement.
Yumul requested DPS Commissioner Ernest Mark Williams to start communicating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to initiate the CNMI’s compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NCIS.
“I believe that in order to ensure a ‘safe community’ it is necessary that DPS diligently participates in our national records check to ensure that individuals applying for firearms in the CNMI have not only met the CNMI’s but our national requirements,” said the representative in a letter to Williams Friday.
In 1998, when the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives first assessed the CNMI’s weapons card permit, it deemed the card system as meeting the national qualification.
A secondary survey was conducted in May 2004, also by BATF, to determine whether the CNMI’s screening program as an NICS alternative was still qualified. It was then determined that the CNMI no longer meets the BATF’s requirements. DPS learned of this through correspondence with BATF in May 2005.
“The CNMI subsequently was given an opportunity to resolve the issues in which we didn’t and which led to the CNMI being disqualified on Oct. 19, 2005,” Yumul said.
The lawmaker expressed dismay over this, saying that, “As the only state/territory with the most stringent firearms laws, I pride myself that the CNMI leads our nation in firearm registration, training and most especially safety.”
The Brady Law, which took effect in November 1998, generally requires licensed dealers to initiate a NICS background check through the FBI before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed individual.
According to BATF, the Brady Law contains a few exceptions to the NICS check requirement, including an exception for holders of certain Territory permits to possess, carry or acquire firearms.
