“The [Nevada] Secretary of State has certified that the petitions submitted for an anti-gun initiative for the 2016 general election ballot are sufficient,” nraila.org reports. “This initiative was filed with the Secretary of State by the anti-gun ‘Nevadans for Background Checks,’ likely affiliated with ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ‘Everytown for Gun Safety’ and seeks to criminalize most private transfers and mandate background checks for nearly all gun transfers in Nevada, with very limited exceptions.” Here’s the official description from the group behind the push . . .
How The Background Check Initiative Works
The Background Check Initiative will close a loophole in Nevada law by requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, with reasonable exceptions for family, hunting, and self-defense.
Under The Background Check Initiative, unlicensed sellers will meet their buyers at a licensed gun dealer. Over 97% of Nevadans live within 10 miles of a licensed gun dealer, so this would be easy and convenient.
If the gun dealer agrees to help process the sale, the dealer will conduct a background check on the potential buyer and comply with state and federal law as though transferring the gun from the dealer’s own inventory, except that the dealer will contact the federal National Instant Background Check System instead of the state Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History.
Ninety percent of checks are completed in 90 seconds or less. For those that are not, the seller can take the gun with him or her while the check is being completed, provided the buyer and seller return to the dealer to complete the transfer.
Click here to read the full text of the initiative.
As we’ve pointed out time and time again, any time the government infringes upon (i.e. regulates) any aspect of keeping and bearing arms – Americans’ natural, civil and Constitutional right, bad things happen. At best (worst?), Universal Background Checks are the proverbial camel’s nose in the tent. Anyway . . .
This time ’round, the background check universalists are addressing some of the “practical” issues raised by the poorly-worded, little-loved language of the Washington Initiative (I-594) passed during the mid-term elections.
The Background Check Initiative exempts certain transfers from the background check requirement:
-Transfers by or to a law enforcement agency or a peace officer, security guard, or member of the armed forces acting within the course and scope of his or her employment or official duties;
– Transfers of antique firearms;
– Transfers between immediate family members, which means spouses and domestic partners and any of the following relations, whether by whole or half blood, adoption, or step-relation: parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews.
– Transfers to executors of estates or trusts that occur upon the death of the owner of a gun;
– Temporary transfers for self-defense, hunting and trapping, target-shooting, and organized competitions and performances;
– Temporary transfers that occur exclusively while in the presence of the transferor, provided the transferor has no reason to believe that the transferee is prohibited from having guns or will use the gun in a crime.
Define temporary. Needless to say, the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action is not happy with the Nevada Initiative, seeing it as a bad bad thing.
This incredibly overreaching proposal is substantially similar to legislation considered last year, which was staunchly opposed by the NRA and Second Amendment supporters, as well as the Nevada Sheriff’s and Chief’s Association, which testified against it. Ultimately, the 2013 legislation was vetoed by Governor Brian Sandoval (R).
This is just another attempt by anti-gun extremists to impose their radical beliefs on law-abiding gun owners in Nevada. So-called “universal” background checks are ineffective and unenforceable. They turn traditional innocent conduct into a criminal offense, and are simply ignored and circumvented by criminals.
The battle is joined.