Sen. Brendan Crighton and Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker worked closely together to get the SAFER Act passed in the state senate late last month that, hopefully, streamlines the process of disseminating information on firearms license applicants from the state to local authorities.
The measure passed the senate by a 37-3- vote in late January after a robust debate.
“The goal is to increase firearms safety while at the same time refrain from infringing on the rights of gun owners,” Crighton said. “We’re looking to basically update the existing notification laws that require the information to be automatically disseminated from the courts to the licensing authorities.”
The amendment will address a key communications loophole, Crighton said, for people dealing with very difficult circumstances.
“When you’re getting court-ordered civil commitments you’re dealing with folks at very vulnerable moments in their life, very difficult moments, and we want to make sure that we’re keeping them safe,” Crighton said.
Included in the Senate’s bill was an amendment filed by Crighton that would close a key communications loophole in the system by ensuring information about court-ordered civil commitments is transmitted in a timely manner to local licensing authorities. This update to the existing notification laws will require the information to be automatically disseminated from courts to licensing authorities through the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) for each commitment that is ordered, as soon as such information is available.
Crighton said Tucker brought up the issue of the exchanging of information in a timely fashion.
Right now information is sent from the courts to the Criminal Justice Information System. There wasn’t a concrete system to transfer the information from CJIS to the local licensing authorities, which are the police departments, Crighton said.
“We want to make sure that the local licensing authority recognizes that these folks are having mental health issues and that they may want to consider taking a look at their gun license temporarily to prevent them from doing harm to themselves or others,” Crighton said.
“That’s great that the courts pass along the information to CJIS but we want the folks on the ground level to have the most up-to-date information to make decisions that will keep individuals in our communities safe,” Crighton said.
Tucker stressed the importance of this amendment.
“Prompt communication of this vital information will allow a licensing authority to take immediate action to revoke a prohibited person’s firearms license,” Tucker said in a press release. “This amendment adds to law enforcement’s ability to enhance public safety within their communities.”
The goal is to give information to the local authorities in a timely manner, Crighton said.
“This amendment doesn’t take away anyone’s guns, it just gives our local authorities the most up to date information to make well-informed decisions,” he said. “We’re very thankful to District Attorney Paul Tucker for bringing the issue to us and for his commitment to helping us get this passed. It’s not easy to get amendments adopted so we’re happy this is included.”
Tucker made Crighton aware of the loophole and how crucial it is for local authorities to have that information.
“He’s been a tremendous resource to me on a wide range of legislation,” Crighton said. “Without Paul we wouldn’t have known about this issue and we wouldn’t have been able to navigate our way through the system and get the best possible language to be passed.”
Crighton said it’s important to keep the mental health issue in mind when dealing with guns.
Crighton said during times of mental health crises it’s vital to give people the time and space to get well but at the same to recognize that the exchange of information in a timely manner makes a huge difference.
“Information is crucial for all parties involved and we want to make sure that we protect the privacy of individuals but also that the people that work everyday to keep us safe have the right information in hand,” he said.
The amendment passed the Senate unanimously during the debate Thursday, Feb. 1.
Now that the bill has been passed by both the Senate and the House, the branches will begin reconciling differences between the two versions. The final step is for Gov. Maura Healey to consider it.
