This week, Everytown for Gun Safety released video footage recorded at a Nevada gun show in which a private investigator licensed in Nevada was able to purchase multiple firearms without background checks – including rifles similar to those recovered with the Mandalay Bay shooter. The footage, recorded 6 days after Las Vegas experienced the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, makes clear that it remains easy to buy a gun without a background check in Nevada because Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Laxalt have refused to enforce the background check law passed last year by voters.
With this footage now public, here are three questions for Gov. Sandoval:
1) Is the governor disturbed by the video?
2) In the days since Attorney General Laxalt confirmed Nevada can ask the FBI to perform the background checks required by the state’s new law, has the governor reached out to the FBI to do so?
3) Now that a lawsuit has been filed, does the governor plan to fight in court to continue blocking the background check law that voters passed, or will he do his job and work to implement it?
A lawsuit was filed last week against the governor and attorney general over their refusal to implement the successful background check initiative, which closed the loophole for unlicensed sales and required background checks on all gun sales in the state, with reasonable exceptions for family, hunting and self-defense.
Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct criminal background checks on most gun sales, but a loophole exists allowing unlicensed sales, including sales online and at gun shows, to take place without background checks. Nevada’s background check initiative, which voters approved last November with a majority of votes, closed that loophole. Eighteen other states have passed similar laws and see fewer gun deaths among law enforcement and victims of domestic violence, as well as fewer suicides by firearm, than states that have not closed the loophole.
If you have any questions on any of this, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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