clean water act; technical
correction
HB 2131 makes a technical change to a statute relating to the certification process used by the Department of Environmental Quality. A strike-everything amendment will be offered that creates the Crime Gun Interdiction Task Force.
HB 2131 was amended in the Judiciary Committee with the strike-everything amendment, with the exception that the provisions that established the Task Force and Policy Board were removed from the amendment and the penalty for defacing or knowingly possessing a defaced deadly weapon was returned to a Class 6 felony (1 year jail/$150,000 fine).
Misconduct involving weapons consists of knowingly manufacturing, possessing, transporting, selling or transferring a prohibited weapon.
§ Increases the criminal penalty for defacing or knowingly possessing a defaced deadly weapon from a Class 6 felony (1 year jail/$150,000 fine) to a Class 5 felony (1.5 years jail/$150,000 fine).
§ Requires a licensed firearms dealer to post notice that selling a deadly weapon to a person who is prohibited by law from possessing one is a Class 6 felony.
§ Makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor (up to 4 months jail/up to $750 fine) for the dealer to fail to post the notice.
§ Establishes the Crime Gun Interdiction Task Force in the Office of the Attorney General for the purpose of enforcing laws concerning the illegal distribution and possession of firearms.
§ Stipulates that the Task Force may include participation from the United States Department of Treasury, the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), the United States Attorney’s Office, the Governor’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Public Safety (DPS), prosecutorial agencies and local law enforcement.
§ Requires the Task Force to develop and implement a strategy for the interdiction of guns that includes:
ü Identifying and prosecuting gun traffickers and suppliers.
ü Cooperating with the U.S. Department of Treasury and ATF to conduct investigations.
ü Working to coordinate Task Force activities with the US Attorney’s Safe Neighborhood Program.
ü Entering into agreements with prosecutorial and governmental agencies in other states to stop the movement of illegal guns across state lines.
§ Permits the Task Force to use the available resources of the ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to analyze crime gun trace and related multiple sales information, to map crime gun recovery locations, to search for criminal patterns using a federal database, to identify specific traffickers operating in Arizona and to determine appropriate venues for prosecution.
§ Establishes the 17-member Crime Gun Interdiction Task Force Policy Board.
§ Stipulates that the Task Force Policy Board shall:
ü Secure federal monies to support Task Force activities.
ü Establish policies and operating procedures.
ü Publish an annual report outlining the activities of the Task Force and gun crime and gun trafficking in Arizona and make the report available to the public.
ü Evaluate methods for reducing gun crime in Arizona and identify resources to assist this goal.
ü Submit an annual report of the Board’s findings and recommendations by December 31 to the Governor, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate.
ü Make a firearm trafficking education program available to local law enforcement agencies that includes:
¨ A module to explain the gun violence problem in Arizona.
¨ Resources available to local law enforcement to combat gun crime, which includes assistance from the Task Force.
¨ The importance of gun tracing, crime mapping and coordinating the activities of different law enforcement agencies.
§ Stipulates that members of the Task Force Policy Board may not receive compensation or reimbursement for expenses.
§ Allows the Policy Board to suspend its activities if Arizona’s participation in the U.S. Attorney’s Safe Neighborhood Program satisfies the objectives of the Crime Gun Interdiction Task Force. The Board must meet annually to determine that the Task Force objectives continue to be met.
§ Makes implementation of the Policy Board dependent upon securing sufficient federal monies to support the Task Force.
§ Requires a law enforcement agency that recovers a firearm used in a crime to complete a firearms trace to the ATF unless legal ownership of the firearm is otherwise established.
§ Terminates the Crime Gun Interdiction article on July 1, 2012.
§ Makes technical and conforming changes.
The strike-everything amendment adopted by the Judiciary Committee was amended as follows:
§ Leaves the criminal penalty for defacing or knowingly possessing a defaced deadly weapon at its current level.
§ Removes the provisions that established the Task Force and Policy Board from the strike-everything amendment.
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45th Legislature
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Second Regular Session 3 March
25, 2002
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