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. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Buyback Our Safety 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. GUN BUYBACK GRANT PROGRAM. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General, through 
the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice 
Programs of the Department of Justice, shall establish a 
gun buyback grant program under which the Assistant At-
torney General may make grants to law enforcement agen-
cies of States, units of local government, and Indian tribal 
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governments to assist in funding gun buyback programs 
carried out by such agencies. 
(b) GUN BUYBACK PROGRAM DEFINED.—For pur-
poses of this section, the term ‘‘gun buyback program’’ 
means, with respect to a law enforcement agency of a 
State, unit of local government, or Indian tribal govern-
ment, a program carried out by such agency under which 
guns are purchased or surrendered to such agency. 
(c) APPLICATIONS.—A law enforcement agency de-
scribed in subsection (a) desiring a grant under this sec-
tion shall submit to the Assistant Attorney General for 
the Office of Justice Programs an application for the 
grant, in accordance with subsection (d) and which shall 
be in such form and contain such information as the As-
sistant Attorney General may require. 
(d) REQUIREMENTS.—The Assistant Attorney Gen-
eral may make a grant under this section to a law enforce-
ment agency described in subsection (a), with respect to 
a gun buyback program, only if the application submitted 
under subsection (c) by such agency provides assurances 
that— 
(1) the law enforcement agency will adequately 
advertise such program to the public; 
(2) such program will be administered by law 
enforcement personnel; 
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(3) all guns received through such program will 
remain in the possession of law enforcement per-
sonnel; 
(4) adequate safeguards will be established and 
followed to prevent the occurrence of fraud in such 
program; 
(5) the law enforcement agency will have in 
place a process to test on site a gun purchased from 
an individual through such program before payment 
is provided to such individual; and 
(6) an adequate process will be in place to de-
stroy all guns received through such program. 
(e) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), to 
be eligible for a grant under this section, a law en-
forcement agency must certify that the law enforce-
ment agency will match all Federal funds provided 
under such grant with an equal amount of cash or 
in-kind goods or services from other non-Federal 
sources. 
(2) WAIVER.—The Assistant Attorney General 
for the Office of Justice Programs may waive, whol-
ly or in part, the matching requirement under para-
graph (1) with respect to a grant made under this 
section to a law enforcement agency for a gun 
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buyback program if such program provides for ob-
taining only the guns identified by the National 
Academy of Sciences pursuant to subsection (f). 
(f) NATIONAL
ACADEMY
OF
SCIENCES
STAND-
ARDS.—The Attorney General, through the Assistant At-
torney General for the Office of Justice Programs, shall 
enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of 
Sciences to develop standards for identifying, and identify, 
guns that are the most likely to be used in violent crimes 
and establish a pricing scale for purchasing guns so identi-
fied through gun buyback programs receiving grants 
under this section. 
(g) REPORTS.— 
(1) REPORTS REQUIRED BY GRANTEES.—In the 
case of a law enforcement agency described in sub-
section (a) receiving a grant under this section with 
respect to a gun buyback program, such agency shall 
submit to the Assistant Attorney General for the Of-
fice of Justice Programs— 
(A) not later than 90 days after receipt of 
such grant and every 90 days thereafter during 
the period for which the program is carried out, 
a report including— 
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(i) the number and types of guns col-
lected and destroyed through such program 
during such period; and 
(ii) recommendations for improving 
future gun buyback programs in the juris-
diction of such agency; and 
(B) not later than 90 days after the last 
day of such program, a final report including 
the information described in each of subclauses 
(I) and (II) of clause (i) with respect to the du-
ration of the program. 
(2) REPORTS BY THE OFFICE OF JUSTICE PRO-
GRAMS.—Not later than one year after the date of 
the enactment of this section and annually there-
after, the Assistant Attorney General for the Office 
of Justice Programs shall submit to Congress a re-
port on— 
(A) the number of gun buyback programs 
that received funding under this section; 
(B) the number of guns received through 
each such gun buyback program; 
(C) the total number of guns purchased 
through all such gun buyback programs; and 
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(D) recommendations on improving the 
grant program under this section and gun 
buyback programs. 
(h) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section: 
(1) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 
the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin 
Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern 
Mariana Islands. 
(2) UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term 
‘‘unit of local government’’ means a county, munici-
pality, town, township, village, parish, borough, or 
other unit of general government below the State 
level. 
(3) VIOLENT CRIME.—The term ‘‘violent crime’’ 
means murder, non-negligent manslaughter, forcible 
rape, robbery, and aggravated assault, as reported 
by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for purposes 
of the Uniform Crime Report. 
(i) AUTHORIZATION
OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 
are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 
$15,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2018 through 
2022. 
Æ 
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