II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 123
To authorize for a grant program for handgun licensing programs, and
for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. V
ANHOLLEN(for himself, Mr. MURPHY, and Mr. BLUMENTHAL) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To authorize for a grant program for handgun licensing
programs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Handgun Permit to 4
Purchase Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds as follows: 7
(1) in 2023, gun violence claimed 46,728 lives, 8
marking the third-highest number of gun-related 9
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2
•S 123 IS
deaths ever recorded in the United States in a single 1
year. 2
(2) Between 2018 and 2022, approximately 90 3
percent of the firearm violence committed in the 4
United States for which a firearm type was specified 5
involved a handgun. 6
(3) During the 5-year period described in para-7
graph (2), 35,959 people in the United States were 8
killed with a handgun. 9
(4) Research by top national experts shows 10
that— 11
(A) the adoption of handgun purchaser li-12
censing laws is associated with significant re-13
ductions in firearm-related homicides; and 14
(B) the repeal of handgun purchaser li-15
censing laws is associated with significant in-16
creases in firearm-related homicides. 17
(5) Research on the effects of the adoption of 18
a handgun purchaser licensing law in Connecticut in 19
1995 showed— 20
(A) a 27.8-percent reduction in the rate of 21
firearm homicide; and 22
(B) a 32.8-percent reduction in firearm 23
suicide rates. 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3
•S 123 IS
(6) Published research has shown that the re-1
peal of a handgun purchaser licensing law in Mis-2
souri in 2007 was associated with— 3
(A) a 47.3-percent increase in the rate of 4
firearm homicide; and 5
(B) a 23.5-percent increase in firearm sui-6
cide rates. 7
(7) Research on the impact of the adoption of 8
a handgun purchaser licensing law in Maryland in 9
2013 found— 10
(A) that the adoption was associated with 11
an 82-percent reduction in the Baltimore Police 12
Department’s recovery of handguns with key in-13
dications of diversion for criminal use; and 14
(B) that 41 percent of prohibited pur-15
chasers surveyed in Baltimore reported greater 16
difficulty in obtaining a handgun. 17
(8) Research on the effects of firearm pur-18
chaser licensing laws throughout 3 decades found 19
that— 20
(A) in urban counties between 1984 and 21
2015, firearm purchaser licensing laws were as-22
sociated with an 11 percent reduction in fire-23
arm homicides; and 24
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4
•S 123 IS
(B) between 1984 and 2017, States with 1
strong firearm purchaser licensing laws were 2
associated with 56 percent lower rates of fatal 3
mass shooting incidents and 67 percent fewer 4
mass shooting victims. 5
(9) In States that have had effective handgun 6
purchaser licensing laws for decades, such as Con-7
necticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, 8
the vast majority of firearms traced to crimes origi-9
nated in States that do not have handgun purchaser 10
licensing laws, which supports the need for handgun 11
purchaser licensing laws in every State. 12
(10) Research has shown that States with 13
handgun purchaser licensing laws export far fewer 14
firearms for criminal use in other States than States 15
that lack handgun purchaser licensing laws. 16
(11) On January 13, 2025, the Supreme Court 17
of the United States declined to hear a challenge to 18
Maryland’s handgun licensing law, allowing the rul-19
ing of the United States Court of Appeals for the 20
Fourth Circuit, which upheld the constitutionality of 21
the law, to stand. 22
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5
•S 123 IS
SEC. 3. GRANT PROGRAM AUTHORIZED FOR HANDGUN LI-1
CENSING. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Title I of the Omnibus Crime 3
Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10101 4
et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘PART PP—HANDGUN LICENSING GRANT 6
PROGRAM 7
‘‘SEC. 3061. DEFINITION. 8
‘‘In this part, the term ‘handgun’ has the meaning 9
given the term in section 921(a) of title 18, United States 10
Code. 11
‘‘SEC. 3062. GRANT PROGRAM. 12
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Attorney General may 13
award grants to States, units of local government, and In-14
dian tribes for the development, implementation, and eval-15
uation of handgun purchaser licensing requirements. 16
‘‘(b) P
ROGRAMAUTHORIZED.—From the amounts 17
appropriated to carry out this part, and not later than 18
90 days after such amounts are appropriated, the Attor-19
ney General shall award grants, on a competitive basis, 20
to eligible applicants whose applications are approved 21
under subsection (c) to assist such applicants in imple-22
menting and improving handgun purchaser licensing pro-23
grams. 24
‘‘(c) A
PPLICATION.—To be eligible to receive a grant 25
under this part, a State, unit of local government, or In-26
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6
•S 123 IS
dian tribe shall submit to the Attorney General an applica-1
tion at such time, in such manner, and containing such 2
information as the Attorney General may require, includ-3
ing— 4
‘‘(1) a description of the law that the applicant 5
has enacted to require a license for any purchase of 6
a handgun, including a description of any exemp-7
tions to such law; and 8
‘‘(2) a description of how the applicant will use 9
the grant to carry out or improve its handgun pur-10
chaser licensing program. 11
‘‘(d) E
LIGIBILITYREQUIREMENTS.—To be eligible 12
for a grant under this part, an applicant shall have in ef-13
fect a handgun purchaser licensing law that includes the 14
following requirements: 15
‘‘(1) With respect to an individual applying for 16
a handgun license or permit— 17
‘‘(A) the individual shall be— 18
‘‘(i) not less than 21 years old; and 19
‘‘(ii) a citizen or national of the 20
United States or an alien lawfully admitted 21
for permanent residence (as those terms 22
are defined in section 101(a) of the Immi-23
gration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 24
1101(a))); 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7
•S 123 IS
‘‘(B) the individual shall apply for the 1
handgun purchaser license or permit at a law 2
enforcement agency in the State in which the 3
individual resides; 4
‘‘(C) the individual shall reapply for the 5
handgun purchaser license or permit after a pe-6
riod not longer than 5 years; and 7
‘‘(D) the individual shall, in connection 8
with the application for the handgun purchaser 9
license or permit— 10
‘‘(i) submit to a background investiga-11
tion and a criminal history check, as estab-12
lished by the State, which shall ensure, at 13
a minimum, that the individual is not pro-14
hibited from possessing a firearm under 15
section 922(g) of title 18, United States 16
Code; and 17
‘‘(ii) submit fingerprints and photo-18
graphs. 19
‘‘(2) An individual who is prohibited from pos-20
sessing a firearm under section 922(g) of title 18, 21
United States Code, may not be issued a handgun 22
purchasing license or permit. 23
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8
•S 123 IS
‘‘(e) USE OFFUNDS.—Grant funds awarded under 1
this part shall be used to improve the handgun purchaser 2
licensing program of the grant recipient.’’. 3
(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—Section 4
1001(a) of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe 5
Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10261(a)) is amended by 6
adding at the end the following: 7
‘‘(29) There are authorized to be appropriated such 8
sums as may be necessary to carry out part PP.’’. 9
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:23 Feb 14, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S123.IS S123
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB