Name: Max Schwartz Date: 2/7/2023 Period: 3

Party: Independent State: Hawaii District (if House): Blank

Committee Referral: Appropriations Needed:

Blank ☐Yes or ☐No (check one)

Bill Title________Schwartz Backround Check Gun Law___________________________

115th Congress

2nd Session

HB or SB #_____39______

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRSENTATIVES OR SENATE

Date_____2/7/2023_______________

A BILL

Be it enacted by the Senate OR House of Representatives of the United States of America

in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the

___Schwartz Background Check Gun Law_____________.

SECTION 2. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/NEED

(1) 53% of Americans favor stricter gun laws.

(2) 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the United State of America in the
year 2020.

(3) Only 16 states and DC require background checks for all gun sales. Some of the
other states that don't require background checks for all gun sales have some of
the highest gun violence and crimes.

(4) Suicide is one of the leading causes of gun-related deaths in America. More than
60% of death by guns in the country are suicides. In states with background
checks for private handgun sales, there are 48% fewer firearm suicides.

(5) 15-24 year olds have a suicide rate of 14.24%. You are allowed to have
possession of a handgun by the age of 18. Changing the age to 21 will prevent
death by guns in teens/young adults.

(6) Convicted felons/violent offenders recidivate (relapse into previous condition or

mode of behavior) and 68.3% of convicted felons/violent offenders get rearrested.

(7) 1 in 5 American citizens has a mental illness at some point in their life and 1 in 25
Americans already have a serious mental illness. “46% of people that died by
suicide had a mental health condition.”
SECTION 3. PROVISIONS - BENEFITS AND ELIGIBILITY

(1) To create a federal law that any locations that sell guns have to do background
checks on every person who buys a gun.

(2) This law will enforce gun background checks for any potential buyers of guns in
the United States of America.

(3) Background checks will not be retroactive and will include any people who buy
guns when the bill is in effect.

(4) All people in the US above the age of 21 will get a background check if they want
to purchase a firearm.

SECTION 4. PROVISIONS - TERMS AND BENEFITS OF SERVICE

(1) This law will enforce any location that sells guns to do background checks on the
 individuals that are purchasing guns.

(2) This background check will take about 5-10 business days to process. It will have
the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) look into your criminal history records,
arrest, conviction history, and as well as traffic violations. It will also have
SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration) look into
mental health records to make sure you are mentally stable to own a firearm.

(3) To be eligible to buy a firearm a person has to state their first name and last name
and their number/email so the location you went to purchase a firearm can get in touch
with the person so they can state if you passed or not.

(4) This law will go into effect in the year 2025 this will give time for funding and planning.
Funding will come from raising sin tax (Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, gambling, and Porn) by
0.6%.

(5) If a person passes the background check they will get an email, text, or letter from the
individual/shop to which they submitted the information so that they can be eligible to
own the firearm.

(6) If a person were to fail the background check they will get an email, text, or letter from
the individual/shop they submitted the information to declining them access to purchase
a firearm.

(7) If a store were to not follow this law they would get penalized. 1st offense would be a
fine of $8,500. Second offense would be to get your FFL taken away for 1 year. The third
offense would be to take your FFL for life.

(8) Individuals who already purchased a gun before this law will have to go to their local
police station and have a background check done.

(9) If an Individual is found with a firearm without a background check done they will get
their firearm taken away and a fine of $6,000.
SECTION 5. ADMINISTRATION (Government agencies and department to execute the law once it's
passed)

FBI and SAMHSA will be in charge of administering these background checks.The

federal government will put a .06% on sin tax. Those funds will be set aside to the FBI
and SAMHSA to provide background checks for any location that sells guns.

SECTION 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS (Include amount of funding requested AND

rationale)

Funding will come from the federal government by putting a 0.6% on sin tax, which
would be about 60,000,000 million dollars for funding. A portion of this money will be set
aside for the FBI and SAMHSA for making and doing background checks on individual
who buys a gun.

SOURCES (Provide the list of all sources used in researching the bill including name of source and
website link if online)

Mental Illness and Gun Violence

https://efsgv.org/learn/learn-more-about-gun-violence/mental-illness-and-gun-violence/

Gun Control Measures Lack Empirical Evidence

https://www.foxnews.com/us/gun-control-measures-lack-empirical-evidence-experts

Gun Violence And What Statistics Tell Us

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081

About Mental Health

https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/learn/index.htm
Risk Of Suicide

https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Common-with-Mental-Illness/Risk-of-Suicide

Recidivism

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/corrections/recidivism

Universal Background Checks

https://giffords.org/lawcenter/gun-laws/policy-areas/background-checks/universal-
background-checks/#:~:text=Fourteen%20states%20