GUN BACKGROUND LAW REQUIRES JUDICIAL DETERMINATION TO PROTECT PUBLIC

GUN BACKGROUND LAW REQUIRES JUDICIAL DETERMINATION TO PROTECT PUBLIC

December 31, 2016

With tomorrow being the start of 2017, Question 1, the Gun Background check law is set to go into effect. However, the law’s enforceability is in doubt. But there still remains confusion in the public’s mind about what exactly they can and cannot do. After Clark County DA Steve Wolfson appeared in TV commercials for months before the November general election advocating for Question 1, many gun owners are now concerned and confused.

This week, Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt issued a formal opinion letter to the Nevada Department of Public Safety regarding the implementation of Question 1, the new Bloomberg Gun background check law. Bloomberg reportedly spent $20 million getting Question 1 passed here in Nevada.

Question 1 requires private gun transfers to go through the FBI National Crime Information Center or NCIC system rather than the Nevada Department of Public Safety gun background check system. The state of Nevada opted, under the Brady law, to have its own gun purchase back ground system which every Federally licensed gun dealer in Nevada must use. Question 1 specifically directs private gun sellers to use the FBI NCIC system and not the State run system.

Based on the FBI’s decision, Adam Laxalt, the Nevada Attorney General issued a formal letter of Opinion stating that:

Because the Act expressly and certainly relies on this error and forbids the Department from being contacted to run background checks, it requires and criminalizes the impossible. Under longstanding legal principles, Nevadans are not required to perform the impossible,and are therefore excused from compliance with the Act’s background requirement unless and until the FBI changes its position set forth in its December 14, 2016 letter. 

But Clark County DA Steve Wolfson starred in TV ads pushing Nevadans to vote for Question 1. Clark County residents have to assume Mr. Wolfson read the law he endorsed and will enforce it tomorrow. So the real question now for Clark County gun owners is, do they want to take the chance of being arrested without a judicial decision and the force of law protecting them? The confusion created by Mr. Wolfson’s TV ads and now the AG office opinion letter need to be adjudicated by a court of law and not in the court of public opinion.

Rob Lauer

Political Reporter

NEWSMAXTV LAS VEGAS