This was an effort by the gun grabbers to force background checks on transactions between private sellers. The FBI said that they would not conduct the checks thereby making the law unenforceable. Good way to start the new year.
A universal gun background check measure, approved by Nevada voters and touted as a victory by gun control advocates, was supposed to take effect after the clock struck midnight Saturday and residents rang in the new year.
But the FBI and Nevada’s attorney general, calling the initiative unenforceable, have put it on hold indefinitely.
The unexpected development is a welcome surprise for Second Amendment supporters, who have long been critical of such background check efforts funded by Michael’s R. Bloomberg’s gun control advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety.
“When you have folks who don’t know what they are doing and don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to firearms policy, this is the sort of mess that you wind up with,” said Craig DeLuz, a spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition. “An idea that sounds good on paper can end up violating the rights of citizens.”
At issue with the Nevada ballot initiative, which 50.4 percent of voters approved on Nov. 8, is who would be responsible for conducting background checks during gun transactions between private citizens.
Transactions between private citizens previously did not require any background checks. Under the initiative, transactions are subject to federal screenings through the FBI-run National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
But the FBI on Dec. 14 alerted the Nevada Department of Public Safety that it would not conduct the checks. The bureau said in a letter to state officials that it is the state’s responsibility to facilitate the checks and that the ballot measure’s approval “cannot dictate how federal resources are applied.”
Nevada is one of 12 “points of contact” where states handle their own gun background checks. Firearms dealers contact the Department of Public Safety’s Central Repository rather than rely solely on the FBI’s system. The FBI notes that the state-run system offers more current data on criminal histories and a broader array of checks on disqualifiers, such as commitment to a mental hospital.
But the Bloomberg-backed initiative specifically prohibits private sales checks from being run through the state’s central repository, leaving the state with no authority to perform checks for private sales, according to an opinion issued by Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican.
“It is manifestly unjust to criminally penalize someone for failing to perform an act that is impossible to perform,” Mr. Laxalt wrote in an opinion Wednesday deeming the ballot initiative unenforceable.