According to the Nevada Appeal, Adam Laxalt has floated a plan to add $1 million into Nevada’s background check records-keeping system.
The move comes just weeks after Reno Gazette-Journal polling showed roughly three in four Nevadans support enforcing the state’s background check law, which voters passed in 2016 through the successful Question 1 ballot initiative.
Laxalt opposed the 2016 ballot initiative, and after Nevadans passed the measure at the ballot box, Laxalt argued it could not be enforced. His office has fought in court against a lawsuit seeking the law’s implementation.
Because the background law passed through Question 1 has not been enforced, it remains easy to buy a gun without a background check in Nevada. Adding money to the criminal history repository without enforcing the background check law is like upgrading the metal detectors at an airport where going through the security line is optional. After last year’s mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip, 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 days earlier with the Mandalay Bay shooter.
In an editorial Monday on the 1-year mark since last year’s tragedy, the Las Vegas Sun urged Nevada voters to back candidates who support common-sense gun violence prevention strategies. In particular, the paper said, the race between Laxalt and gun violence prevention champion Steve Sisolak offers a clear contrast.
“The prospects for reforms start with the race for governor, where the choice couldn’t be more clear cut,” the paper wrote.
For more information on gun issues in this year’s Nevada election, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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