Alaska seeks to boost gun background check system reporting

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Under a proposed rewrite of state crime laws, Alaska legislators would require the courts to review for a federal database system records dating to 1981 for individuals who have been involuntarily committed and would be restricted from owning firearms. While debates over guns elicit fears of erosions of the Second Amendment right to bear arms, this provision has generated few waves. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration is pushing it as a way to prevent future violence or suicides. National Rifle Association spokesman Lars Dalseide by email said that group “has always called for the submission of all relevant records” to the system “and that position hasn’t changed.” Some Republicans in the state Legislature have expressed support. Rep. Chuck Kopp, a former police officer, said he supports Second Amendment rights but said there’s a balance in wanting to ensure the database has that information to improve the safety of the general public. The state in 2014 began requiring the courts to provide to the Department of Public Safety information on involuntary commitments. It also set out a process by which affected individuals could seek to have their gun rights restored. The law’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Lance Pruitt, at the time noted Alaska’s “steadfast tradition of the right to responsible firearm ownership,” and he saw providing relevant information to the database as a key part of that responsibility. “There are some people who might find themselves surprised by it, and that part is my concern,” he said of the new proposal Thursday. But the benefits “probably outweigh those other concerns. But I don’t say that without recognizing that there could be some people who were affected.” That law was part of a national trend to bolster information provided to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System,

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