After S.C. shootings, Nevada praised for restraint on guns

By Kyle Roerink

Wednesday, June 24, 2015 | 2 a.m.

From its Wild West past to its multitude of modern gun-related attractions, like firing fully automatic machine guns and posing for wedding photos with military-inspired weapons, Nevada isn't often recognized for its restraint on firearms.

But that's what has happened with help from Everytown in the wake of a shooting that left nine dead at a historic church in Charleston. Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s top gun control advocacy group, has praised Nevada legislators for blocking a measure to allow firearms to be carried in an expanded list of places and approving a bill outlawing gun possession by domestic violence offenders.

The gun control group, backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, lists Nevada as one of at least 15 states that defeated controversial, pro-gun measures proposed this year in legislatures across the country.

After failed efforts to reform gun laws in Congress, Bloomberg pledged $50 million to launch a state-by-state grassroots campaign to battle the NRA and other pro-gun groups. The push came last year after Congress failed to expand background checks in the aftermath of the 2012 massacre of 20 students at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

Erika Soto Lamb, communications director for Everytown, said the 2015 Legislature was supposed to be the “gun session” in Nevada, but parents, students, law enforcement and activists rallied to block NRA-backed proposals.

“Nevada, like many other states we work in, is an example of where the gun lobby didn’t have a clear course to impose its will,” she said.

In January, gun-control advocates were not optimistic when Nevada Republicans introduced at least 27 pro-gun measures. The state GOP came into the session in control of the governor’s office and both chambers of the Legislature, and it expressed an appetite to loosen restrictions while expanding where people could carry firearms. The controversial bills came from Nevada GOP Assembly members who called to allow guns on school grounds and enable concealed carry without a permit.

Everytown lobbyists lined up with Democrats to fight back against the measures. By May, the fears were largely eliminated.

But it was GOP extremists — not Everytown and Democrats — who influenced the demise of the gun legislation. The Senate’s GOP leaders ignored the controversial proposals from the Assembly’s far-right members. The move kept incendiary bills off Gov. Brian Sandoval’s desk and cleared Republican senators from casting votes that pro-gun groups like the NRA could use against them during campaign season.

Of the 27 pro-gun bills tracked by the Nevada Firearms Coalition — the state’s NRA affiliate — 18 didn’t receive a hearing in the Senate, said Don Turner, the group’s president.

“It was political maneuvering,” Turner said.

But the pro-gun lobby didn’t go away without victories. Lawmakers approved bills to eliminate a Clark County gun registration program and allow car owners to defend themselves with deadly force inside of vehicles.

“Like with everything else, you ask Santa for presents and you’re not going to get everything you want,” Turner said.

Pro-Second Amendment lawmakers and gun-control advocates compromised on one bill — the one preventing those convicted of domestic abuse from buying guns.

GOP Assemblyman Ira Hansen, one of the state’s outspoken pro Second Amendment advocates from Sparks, fought until the last hours of the session to pass a measure that would allow students to carry concealed firearms on college campuses in the state.

His efforts fell short.

“In all honesty, I predicted the pro Second Amendment agenda would go through with no problem,” he said.

Because of the GOP divide on firearms, Turner and Hansen downplayed Everytown’s role in the session. But they didn’t shrug at its influence in the state.

Everytown is the driving force of a 2016 ballot initiative that will ask voters to expand background checks on gun purchases. The push stems from Sandoval’s 2013 veto of a bill to require background checks on all gun sales in the state — including those between family members.

In Nevada, Everytown collected more signatures than any group in state history to land the measure on the ballot, surpassing the requirement by more than 50,000 names.

Their efforts failed in Congress in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shootings, prompting them to start the grassroots effort now on display in Nevada. With Everytown’s influence, Washington and Oregon recently approved background checks in the past year.

Hansen said he was “fearful” that voters would pass the initiative in 2016 — a presidential election where Democrats who support gun reforms would be likely to vote.

“I am sure Bloomberg can easily sink a few million into a very aggressive public relations campaign,” Hansen said.

The hope among the initiative's proponents is that expanded background checks will keep firearms away from the mentally ill, convicted criminals and people like Dylann Storm Roof, the 21-year-old South Carolina man accused of killing nine people inside the Emanuel African Episcopal Methodist Church on June 17.

Currently, 18 states require all gun purchasers to submit background checks to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Speaking in Las Vegas last week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton signaled that she would tackle gun reform if elected to office.

Tuesday on the Senate floor, the Minority Leader Harry Reid, called for action.

"The United States is the only advanced country where this type of mass violence occurs," Reid said. "Let's do something. We can expand, for example, background checks. ... We should support not giving guns to people who are mentally ill and felons."

Without new legislation, Reid said, “we will be here again. Our hearts will be broken again.”