Tuesday, April 2, 2019 | 2 a.m.
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In November 2018, Nevada voters made a loud-and-clear demand for improved gun safety when they elected a slew of candidates who identified it as one of their top priorities.
Now, those lawmakers are continuing to deliver in Carson City.
Their latest step came Monday, when a legislative committee approved bills that would undergird the federal ban on bump stocks and establish penalties for placing a gun where a child can get to it, among other outcomes.
The two bills are both reasonable steps toward reducing gun violence and accidental shootings in Nevada.
Let’s look at them one at a time:
• Assembly Bill 291 is a package of three measures, headlined by the state ban on bump stocks. That restriction may seem redundant given the federal ban, but it actually provides a backstop for Nevada should the federal ban be altered or revoked. Plus, it’s an important symbolic measure in a state where bump stocks were used in the Oct. 1 shooting.
• Another component of AB291 would lower the legal limit for blood-alcohol content, to 0.08 from the current 0.10 percent. The new limit is the same as the restriction for motorists. It’s a logical move.
• The third measure of AB291 would undo a state law that bars local governments from imposing any gun measures more strict than state statutes. That law was quietly established in 2015, during a rare year when Republicans controlled both chambers of the Legislature as well as the governor’s office. It was terrible policy at the time, and it only got worse after the Oct. 1 shooting. That’s when Gov. Steve Sisolak, then the chairman of the Clark County Commission, attempted to introduce a bump stock ban at the county level but was forced to pull it because of the state statute.
• Assembly Bill 153 is aimed at reducing gun deaths and injuries among children by holding adults responsible for keeping weapons away from them. This one’s long overdue, considering the all-too-frequent reports of children in Southern Nevada shooting themselves or each other with guns found in their homes. Nationwide, meanwhile, a report issued in February showed that nearly 1,200 children had died by firearm in the year following the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. As McClatchy’s Kevin G. Hall reported, that number translates to a Parkland every five days.
More bills may soon be working their way through the Legislature, such as a “red-flag” measure that would allow authorities to temporarily seize guns from individuals who have been deemed a threat to themselves or others.
The movement toward greater gun safety is a bright spot in this legislative session, in which lawmakers made a strong statement early on the issue by approving universal background checks on firearms purchases. In doing so, the Legislature and Sisolak righted a wrong that occurred when former Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Laxalt, both Republicans, failed to implement a ballot measure passed by voters in 2016 to expand the checks.
Nevadans can be proud of themselves in electing state lawmakers who are working in the best interests of state residents, as opposed to the National Rifle Association and gun extremists.
No state understands the pain and horror of gun violence at a deeper level than Nevada after the Oct. 1 shooting. But we also know the problem goes far, far beyond that shooting. Gun slayings and injuries happen in the Las Vegas Valley on virtually a daily basis, and our state’s rate of suicides by gun and shootings of women by domestic partners are among the highest in the nation.
The NRA crowd has proven it will fight any gun safety legislation, no matter how responsible or sensical it might be. A legal challenge to the universal background checks is all but certain to materialize, sadly.
Meanwhile, some extremist rural sheriffs in Nevada have already pledged not to enforce the background check requirement.
That’s deeply alarming, as these sheriffs are making it easier for criminals and others to get guns they shouldn’t have. It also raises serious questions about the rule of law when these officials pick and choose which state statutes they enforce.
But none of this should deter state lawmakers from pressing forward on reasonable steps to curb gun violence. The people have spoken on the matter, and they are firmly in favor of making the state a safer place.
