Safer Communities Act of 2017

This bill provides grants to expand mental health crisis assistance programs, support comprehensive school mental health programs, and enhance mental health and substance abuse needs of prisoners.

The Department of Health and Human Services must expand research on violence associated with mental illness and substance abuse disorders.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must expand the National Violent Death Reporting System to all 50 states and research the causes, mechanisms, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of injuries from gun violence.

The bill states that no provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act prohibits physicians from asking patients about guns in their homes, speaking to a patient about gun safety, or reporting a patient's threat of violence.

It amends the federal criminal code to specify that the term "committed to a mental institution" applies to involuntary inpatient or outpatient treatment.

It amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to authorize state grants to remove firearms from individuals who pose a threat to themselves or others.

The Department of Justice must promptly notify law enforcement agencies when a prohibited person attempts to purchase a firearm.

The bill replaces statutory references to persons "adjudicated as a mental defective" with persons "adjudicated as ineligible due to disqualifying mental status."

It amends the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 to:

• establish procedures to restore firearm ownership rights after a mental health adjudication or commitment,
• require an annual report on record submissions due to domestic violence misdemeanor convictions,
• authorize state grants to improve the automation and transmittal of mental health and criminal history records, and
• require quarterly updates to federal agency record submissions.

The bill reauthorizes the National Criminal History Records Improvement Program through FY2023.