I 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 445 

To establish a gun buyback grant program. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 11, 2017 

Mr. DEUTCH (for himself, Mr. QUIGLEY, and Mr. CONNOLLY) introduced the 

following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish a gun buyback grant program. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Buyback Our Safety 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. GUN BUYBACK GRANT PROGRAM. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General, through 

8 the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice 

9 Programs of the Department of Justice, shall establish a 

10 gun buyback grant program under which the Assistant At11 torney General may make grants to law enforcement agen12 cies of States, units of local government, and Indian tribal 


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1 governments to assist in funding gun buyback programs 

2 carried out by such agencies. 

3 (b) GUN BUYBACK PROGRAM DEFINED.—For pur4 poses of this section, the term ‘‘gun buyback program’’ 

5 means, with respect to a law enforcement agency of a 

6 State, unit of local government, or Indian tribal govern7 ment, a program carried out by such agency under which 

8 guns are purchased or surrendered to such agency. 

9 (c) APPLICATIONS.—A law enforcement agency de10 scribed in subsection (a) desiring a grant under this sec11 tion shall submit to the Assistant Attorney General for 

12 the Office of Justice Programs an application for the 

13 grant, in accordance with subsection (d) and which shall 

14 be in such form and contain such information as the As15 sistant Attorney General may require. 

16 (d) REQUIREMENTS.—The Assistant Attorney Gen17 eral may make a grant under this section to a law enforce18 ment agency described in subsection (a), with respect to 

19 a gun buyback program, only if the application submitted 

20 under subsection (c) by such agency provides assurances 

21 that— 

22 (1) the law enforcement agency will adequately 

23 advertise such program to the public; 

24 (2) such program will be administered by law 

25 enforcement personnel; 


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1 (3) all guns received through such program will 

2 remain in the possession of law enforcement per3 sonnel; 

4 (4) adequate safeguards will be established and 

5 followed to prevent the occurrence of fraud in such 

6 program; 

7 (5) the law enforcement agency will have in 

8 place a process to test on site a gun purchased from 

9 an individual through such program before payment 

10 is provided to such individual; and 

11 (6) an adequate process will be in place to de12 stroy all guns received through such program. 

13 (e) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 

14 (1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), to 

15 be eligible for a grant under this section, a law en16 forcement agency must certify that the law enforce17 ment agency will match all Federal funds provided 

18 under such grant with an equal amount of cash or 

19 in-kind goods or services from other non-Federal 

20 sources. 

21 (2) WAIVER.—The Assistant Attorney General 

22 for the Office of Justice Programs may waive, whol23 ly or in part, the matching requirement under para24 graph (1) with respect to a grant made under this 

25 section to a law enforcement agency for a gun 


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1 buyback program if such program provides for ob2 taining only the guns identified by the National 

3 Academy of Sciences pursuant to subsection (f). 

4 (f) NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STAND5 ARDS.—The Attorney General, through the Assistant At6 torney General for the Office of Justice Programs, shall 

7 enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of 

8 Sciences to develop standards for identifying, and identify, 

9 guns that are the most likely to be used in violent crimes 

10 and establish a pricing scale for purchasing guns so identi11 fied through gun buyback programs receiving grants 

12 under this section. 

13 (g) REPORTS.— 

14 (1) REPORTS REQUIRED BY GRANTEES.—In the 

15 case of a law enforcement agency described in sub16 section (a) receiving a grant under this section with 

17 respect to a gun buyback program, such agency shall 

18 submit to the Assistant Attorney General for the Of19 fice of Justice Programs— 

20 (A) not later than 90 days after receipt of 

21 such grant and every 90 days thereafter during 

22 the period for which the program is carried out, 

23 a report including— 


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1 (i) the number and types of guns col2 lected and destroyed through such program 

3 during such period; and 

4 (ii) recommendations for improving 

5 future gun buyback programs in the juris6 diction of such agency; and 

7 (B) not later than 90 days after the last 

8 day of such program, a final report including 

9 the information described in each of subclauses 

10 (I) and (II) of clause (i) with respect to the du11 ration of the program. 

12 (2) REPORTS BY THE OFFICE OF JUSTICE PRO13 GRAMS.—Not later than one year after the date of 

14 the enactment of this section and annually there15 after, the Assistant Attorney General for the Office 

16 of Justice Programs shall submit to Congress a re17 port on— 

18 (A) the number of gun buyback programs 

19 that received funding under this section; 

20 (B) the number of guns received through 

21 each such gun buyback program; 

22 (C) the total number of guns purchased 

23 through all such gun buyback programs; and 


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1 (D) recommendations on improving the 

2 grant program under this section and gun 

3 buyback programs. 

4 (h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 

5 (1) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 

6 the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com7 monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 

8 Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern 

9 Mariana Islands. 

10 (2) UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term 

11 ‘‘unit of local government’’ means a county, munici12 pality, town, township, village, parish, borough, or 

13 other unit of general government below the State 

14 level. 

15 (3) VIOLENT CRIME.—The term ‘‘violent crime’’ 

16 means murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible 

17 rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, as reported 

18 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for purposes 

19 of the Uniform Crime Report. 

20 (i) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 

21 are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 

22 $15,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 

23 2022. 

Æ 


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