Resolve, To Provide Assistance to Private Sellers of Firearms

Sec. 1. Department of Public Safety to assist private sellers of firearms. Resolved: That the Department of Public Safety shall assist private sellers of firearms by providing information about how to collect appropriate information about the purchasers of firearms and how to obtain criminal history record checks on those purchasers. The Department of Public Safety shall invite the United States Attorney for the District of Maine to collaborate in order to educate and encourage access to the Project Safe Neighborhoods website where private sellers can obtain a gun seller's tool kit. The Department of Public Safety shall invite the United States Attorney for the District of Maine to assist it in contacting Maine's federally licensed firearms dealers and compiling a list of those dealers who are willing to perform criminal history record checks of buyers purchasing firearms from private sellers. Once the list is compiled, the Department of Public Safety shall provide that list on its publicly accessible website, including information about the cost of the service to private sellers. The Department of Public Safety shall also publicize this information to educate the public and shall invite the United States Attorney for the District of Maine to do the same; and be it further

Sec. 2. Report. Resolved: That the Department of Public Safety shall report its progress to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety by February 1, 2010.

SUMMARY

This resolve directs the Department of Public Safety to assist private sellers of firearms by providing information about how to collect appropriate information about the purchasers of firearms and how to obtain criminal history record checks on those purchasers. In this effort, the Department of Public Safety shall invite the United States Attorney for the District of Maine to collaborate in order to educate and encourage access to the Project Safe Neighborhoods website where private sellers can obtain a gun seller's tool kit. The department shall also invite the United States Attorney to assist it in contacting Maine's federally licensed firearms dealers and compiling a list of those dealers who are willing to perform criminal history record checks of buyers purchasing firearms from private sellers. The department shall post that list on its website and shall publicize the information to educate the public. The department shall report its progress to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety by February 1, 2010.