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March 28, 2024 9:48 pm
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Nevada Gun Background Checks Bill Signed Into Law

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

A law requiring strict background checks on private gun sales in Nevada was easily passed in the State Legislature on Friday and was promptly signed by the governor the same day.

Senate Bill 143, which aimed to close the state’s “gun-show loophole,” will subject almost all private gun sales and transfers to a state background check. The bill sailed through the Democrat-controlled Legislature within just four days.
“With this bill we are taking an important step to address a nation-wide public health crisis that is gun violence,” said Governor Steve Sisolak just before signing the bill. “We are making our children and families safer here at home by making it harder for potentially dangerous individuals to access a firearm.”

With the bill, Democratic leaders sought to replace a 2016 ballot initiative that was narrowly approved by voters. That initiative had asked the FBI to condict beefed-up background checks on private gun sales. But it was deemed unenforceable when federal authorities declined to take up that task.

Senate Bill 143 repealed that ballot initiative, replacing it with a state-run background check system. Instead of relying on federal agencies to perform the checks, it requires all private gun sales and transfers to be brought to a licensed firearms dealer in the state. The dealer then runs a background check as it would in any other gun transaction, and keeps the records on file.

Proponents proclaimed that the measure would prevent gun violence in the state. In a public statement at a hearing held Tuesday, Nevada State Senate Majority Leader Kelvin Atkinson (D-N. Las Vegas) related a 2016 instance when a woman was shot and killed by an ex-boyfriend outside a Las Vegas day care. Also involved were two pre-school children injured in the incident.

“The shooter had a protective order against him preventing him from legally possessing a firearm,” Atkinson said. “So when he obtained a firearm from a private, unlicensed seller, he simply lied about his criminal history.”

Atkinson said that this was one instance where a background check would have saved a life.

But opponents of the bill insisted that the measure would do little to prevent criminals from obtaining guns. Rather it would only restrict the property rights of law-abiding citizens.
“We are all in support of measures that would mitigate these tragedies,” said Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler (R-Minden), speaking before the vote on the Assembly floor on Friday. “However, we all know this bill will not do anything to stop them. Instead, I believe this bill seems like Nevada following a political agenda instead of what Nevada usually does: We lead the way.”

Wheeler believed that the bill was less about effective gun control and more about establishing a public registry of gun ownership in the state.
“Once future leaders get bills like this, they’ll know right where to go to get guns to confiscate,” Wheeler said.

Republicans, who are up against a near Democratic super-majority opposition in the Legislature, still put up a pitched battle against the bill’s passage. The organized the gun-owning public to protest the measure at a single public hearing that was held on Tuesday. In that meeting, Legislators heard eight hours of testimony and public comment. More than 1,000 people submitted formal comments, both written and in person on the subject.

Later, as the bill came before the Assembly, Republicans submitted an amendment to the bill that they hoped would define and clarify language in the bill which they saw as vague. For example, the bill exempts certain weapons transfers from background checks. These exemptions include transfers between family members, transfers of ownership through a trust, gifts of antique or heirloom firearms, and temporary transfers of guns during a hunt, target shooting at gun ranges or other sporting events.

Republicans said that the bill did not offer clear enough definitions for what exactly constitutes a transfer, how long is a temporary transfer, what qualifies as a shooting range and more. Without these things clearly defined, GOP leaders feared that the law would be open to various interpretations in its implementation.

“We felt that the amendment would have defined some of these terms and cleaned up a lot of that uncertainty,” said Assemblyman Chris Edwards (R-Henderson). “It would have resolved a lot of issues.”

But the overwhelming Democrat majority brushed off these efforts at a compromise and moved the item forward, as it was, to passage.
“We tried to fight as hard as we could in the subordinate position that we find ourselves there,” Edwards said of the Republican minority. “But we had no sway at all. It is clear that there is no intention for any bipartisanship in this Legislature. They are intent upon ram-rodding through every kind of liberal policy that they can come up with.”

The bill was passed Friday with a party-line 28-13 vote in the Assembly. It had passed the Senate earlier in the week with a 13-8 vote, also divided along party lines. The law is set to go into effect in 2020.

By Friday night, concerns were already being voiced by firearms dealers on what will be required of them in implementing the new law.

Local gun dealer, Mark Hopkins, of Overton Ace Hardware, stated that it would undoubtedly bring an added workload to his business. He noted that it has always been a common practice for gun owners to trade firearms and deal back and forth with each other as friends.

“That’s really something that is part of the culture,” Hopkins said. “Guys are always horse-trading all the time – you know, ‘I’ll trade you this for that and give you a couple hundred bucks extra’ – stuff like that.”

If all of that trading were to come through his shop now for background checks, Hopkins estimated he would see an additional 3-4 background checks per day.
“That might not sound like much, but believe me it is a lot of paperwork to keep track of,” Hopkins said. “And we are required to store all those records securely here for 25 years. We take on a lot of liability.”

That kind of volume also raises the chance of human error and mistakes being made, Hopkins said.
“We have a lot of review and safeguards in place to maintain accuracy,” Hopkins said.

“But we are a small operation and mistakes are possible when you have so much paperwork to do. And I’ll tell you, (the regulating agencies) don’t take kindly to mistakes of any kind. There is no allowance for human error. They just pull your license and, once it’s gone, there is no renewing it.”

What’s more, after all of this is considered, Hopkins doesn’t see how the new law will help in stopping gun violence. He points out that there still won’t be a central database for the data gathered at his store to be entered.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is the only entity allowed to request information from his records, Hopkins said. And to do so, they must provide him with all the specifics on each individual transfer or sale, he said.

“So I don’t really see how things will be any safer,” Hopkins said. “The bad guys aren’t going to bother going through this. But they will still get guns. All there is in this is more paperwork, inconvenience and expense for responsible gun owners.”

Hopkins did express concern that the new law might make unknowing criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
“I worry that folks will just keep doing things as they always have, not knowing the complexities of this change,” he said. “I’m afraid that a lot of people are going to break the law without even knowing they are doing it.”

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1 thought on “Nevada Gun Background Checks Bill Signed Into Law”

  1. This law is unenforceable. This time, it’s because owners won’t comply and law enforcement officers won’t enforce it.

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