Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

GUEST COLUMN:

Nevadans voted for gun safety. Now, it’s time for us to deliver

Last year, Nevada’s voters turned out in impressive numbers to cast ballots for candidates who pledged to end the gun violence epidemic that has plagued our local communities for decades.

Now, it’s time for those of us who ran on those promises to deliver.

Nevadans have been waiting for their elected representatives to act on gun safety for some time, and the growing frustration is palpable. In 2016, voters passed Question 1, also known as the Nevada Background Check Initiative, which would have closed loopholes and expanded background checks on gun sales in our state. Unfortunately, due to a technical complication and a lack of action by our reckless former attorney general, the measure's implementation stalled. And to add insult to injury, the gun lobby tried to silence the debate even as our state endured the worst mass shooting in modern American history.

I was there on Oct. 1 as bullets rained down on the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival. The scenes remain vivid in my memory — streams of shots ringing out, my husband grabbing me and shielding me, the two of us running for cover, friends and fellow concertgoers falling to the ground around us, the crowd in complete panic and confusion. Through it came the horrifying sound of intermittent gunfire.

In the span of 10 minutes, the gunman fired off more than 1,100 rounds from high-powered assault rifles, hitting 480 people. Fifty-eight were killed, and hundreds of others were injured as they scrambled to escape the gunfire.

For me, that night still generates feelings of terror, fear, anger and guilt — feelings that will linger with me for the rest of my life. But I refuse to let those emotions define me. Instead, like many other survivors of such tragedies, I am using my position to implement actual, meaningful change.

Nevada ranks among the top 20 states with the highest firearm mortality rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In its annual scorecard, which grades states according to the strength of their gun safety protections, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave our state a D due to our weak gun laws and failure to implement the reforms outlined in Question 1.

As Nevadans, it’s already disheartening to know our country leads the world in firearm deaths among youths, but another layer of despair is added when we learn that Nevada is among the top states where those killings occur. Recently, Everytown for Gun Safety released a chilling statistic that Nevada women are 65 percent more likely than women in other states to be shot to death by their intimate partners. The statistics go on.

But enough is enough.

This year will be different.

This year’s legislative session marks the first period since the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting in which Nevada state legislators have a chance to come together and implement meaningful changes in our state’s gun laws. My colleagues in the Legislature and I look forward to passing policies that will make our communities safer.

On Tuesday, the judiciary committees of the Senate and Assembly held a joint hearing on Senate Bill 143, legislation that would expand background checks on gun sales in our state. Later this session, I plan to introduce a bill in the Assembly that would further explore how we can make our communities and neighborhoods safer from gun violence. These are critical first steps in our state’s efforts to tackle this crisis.

Ending gun violence is the challenge of our generation. And we are up for the task. Citizens across the country are stepping up in numbers never before seen in the history of our democracy to push back against well-connected special interest groups that have hijacked the conversation around gun violence.

Here in Nevada, residents consistently indicate in poll after poll that we want stronger gun safety laws, and these reforms are long overdue. We know that this fight is far from over, but gun safety is something I’m going to fight for.

No other person or family should have to experience this again. Because you shouldn’t have to die to matter, but the fact that people died should matter.

Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, was elected to the Legislature in November. She represents the 41st District, which covers a portion of the south valley. This year, she was nominated for the Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award, which celebrates an extraordinary woman serving in state or local office and is awarded by Emily's List .