The Nevada November ballot asked the state’s voters to decide if they wanted to outlaw the private sale of firearms.
Here’s the question on the ballot:
Shall Chapter 202 of the Nevada Revised Statutes be amended to prohibit, except in certain circumstances, a person from selling or transferring a firearm to another person unless a federally-licensed dealer first conducts a federal background check on the potential buyer or transferee?
The explanation of the measure and more details can be found here.
The measure barely passed and it probably didn’t really pass once you account for the Democrat voter fraud courtesy of the Harry Reid machine.
Yesterday, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt blocked the background check law because “the FBI refuses to conduct them and the state lacks authority to do so.”
The opinion issued by the office of Republican Attorney General Adam Laxalt left gun enthusiasts elated and proponents of background checks reeling from the blow of another setback — the second since 2013 when a bill requiring universal screenings was passed by the Legislature but vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval.
Backers are now turning their sights to the 2017 Legislature, while others expressed hope that the state and FBI can work out a compromise.
“The Background Check Act mandates that the FBI conduct all background checks for personal transfers,” Monica Moazez, spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement. “The FBI, on Dec. 14, informed the Department of Public Safety that it will not conduct these background checks.”
Laxalt found the checks “unenforceable” because the Background Check Act “grants the Nevada Department of Public Safety no authority to perform the private-party checks required by the Act.” Instead, it requires “intermediaries” to run the checks through the FBI background check database. These “intermediaries” would be licensed firearms dealers.
“Accordingly, the official Attorney General Opinion concludes that without this central feature … the Background Check Act cannot commence.”
AWR Hawkins explains:
On December 14 — just five weeks after voters approved the checks — the FBI opted out and informed Nevada DPS that it will not allow its checks to be run by intermediaries. The FBI explained that it will only allow its database to be accessed if the checks “are conducted as any other background check for firearms.” In other words, run with the Nevada DPS serving as “Point of Contact” for the sale. However, the language of the Act makes this an impossibility because it granted Nevada DPS “no authority” to run the checks.
Of course this idiotic anti-gun law came from the dummies at Everytown for Gun Safety (not linking.)
Proponents, financed largely by Everytown for Gun Safety, a group formed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, filed an initiative to take the issue directly to voters. Question 1 failed in every Nevada county except Clark, which, with an overwhelming Democratic population base, pushed it to passage by nearly 10,000 votes.
Jennifer Crowe, head harpy for Nevada Moms Demand Action and a part of the pro-background check effort, hopes there is a way for the state and the FBI to work together since her anti-gun mafia can’t write proper ballot initiatives.
“This is what happens when you allow uninformed, out-of-state groups that prey on people’s emotions to write your laws,” Robert Uithoven, of NRA Nevadans for Freedom, said in a statement.
“Whoever put the ballot initiative together didn’t research very well,” Don Turner, president of the Nevada Firearms Coalition, said. “It’s what we kept saying all along.”
And keep an eye on Adam Laxalt — he is a superstar.
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