Bill HF2746, SF2746

Session 2025

Bill Introduced By
Rigoberto Smiley-Smith
Harding Senior High School
House

House Author
Rigoberto Smiley-Smith

A bill for an act relating to

Law enforcement agencies required to trace and report on recovered or confiscated firearms.

Committee Hearing

Path	Committee	Action
1	Judiciary Committee	In Committee
2	Rules Committee	No Action Taken

Legislative Action

	Action
House	No Action Taken
Senate	No Action Taken
Governor	No Action Taken

Select Amendment

1.1          A bill for an act
1.2          relating to public safety; requiring law enforcement agencies to trace and report
1.3          on recovered or confiscated firearms;proposing coding for new law in Minnesota
1.4          Statutes, chapter 626.
1.5          BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

1.6          Section 1. [626.5536] LAW ENFORCEMENT REQUIRED TO REGISTER FOR
1.7          ETRACE SYSTEM AND TRACE AND REPORT ON RECOVERED OR
1.8          CONFISCATED FIREARMS.
1.9                          Subdivision 1.Definition. As used in this section, "recovered or confiscated" means
1.10       any of the following:
1.11       (1) obtained from a crime scene or in connection with a criminal investigation;
1.12       (2) seized by a law enforcement agency;
1.13       (3) forfeited to a law enforcement agency;
1.14       (4) acquired by a law enforcement agency as an abandoned or discarded firearm;
1.15       (5) obtained following the unlawful discharge of a firearm; or
1.16       (6) otherwise obtained and reasonably believed to be connected to a crime.
1.17                       Subd. 2.Reporting required. (a) Each law enforcement agency shall register for the
1.18       United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Tracing
1.19       Center's eTrace system, and opt-in to the system's collective data sharing feature.
1.20       (b) Whenever a firearm is recovered or confiscated by a law enforcement agency, the
1.21       agency must, as soon as practicable:
2.1          (1) transmit information relating to the firearm to the eTrace system; and
2.2          (2) arrange for the firearm to be test fired and the results submitted to the National
2.3          Integrated Ballistics Information Network.
2.4          (c) Whenever a shell casing is recovered or confiscated by a law enforcement agency,
2.5          that agency must, as soon as practicable, submit the ballistics information to the National
2.6          Integrated Ballistics Information Network.

Author
Rigoberto Smiley-Smith
Harding Senior High School
House

Essay

Good morning/afternoon Mr/Ms chair, I am Rigoberto Smiley-Smith representing bill HF 2746. It has been found in a 5 year study conducted by the ATF ranging from 2017 to 2021 that 54% of traced crime guns were recovered more than three years after being legally purchased. These guns were often not in the hands of the legal purchaser. This is a problem in our country, legally purchased guns are circulating amongst criminals and being used to threaten and harm people. Also, it is not uncommon for seized weapons to be re-sold by a law enforcement agency, therefore possibly getting into the hands of a criminal again. This bill would make it a necessity for law enforcement agencies to register a recovered or confiscated weapon for the ATFs tracing center's E-TRACE system, trace its origins, and report on findings. This would help link the weapon to any prior crimes it was involved in. It would also make any future crimes easier to solve with the ballistic information already in the database. With better, more consistent tracing law enforcement agencies may be able to find patterns in how firearms move, helping to stop future thefts and other crimes possibly getting a large amount of these guns out of circulation. This bill saves time and resources for law enforcement and lives of victims my better tracing weapons and how they move.

There are currently no votes for this bill.