Gun background checks set for hearing at Nevada Legislature

A joint meeting of the Assembly and Senate Judiciary Committees is set for Tuesday morning to discus the voter-approved background checks legislation.

The meeting beginning at 8 a.m. will be held in the ground floor auditorium, Room 1214, since lawmakers expect a crowd.

The meeting agenda said the discussion will center on, “Provisions relating to background checks for certain purchases or transfers of firearms.”

The National Rifle Association has already issued a notice saying it’s mobilizing opponents of the background checks initiative to attend the session, saying the contents of any proposed legislation are still confidential but they expect the plan is to find a way to enact the voter approved measure that mandates background checks for all gun sales and transfers except for those to an immediate family member.

The idea was to close the loophole that doesn’t mandate backgrounders for firearm sales at gun shows and other such events. Sales by federally licensed gun dealers already require a background check.

Former Attorney General Adam Laxalt said the mandatory background checks couldn’t be implemented because it calls for those checks to be done through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System and the FBI refused to conduct them.

Nonetheless, the state Department of Public Safety has been conducting voluntary background checks for firearms sales between private parties.

But with the start of this legislative session, the three-year period in which lawmakers can’t change a voter approved statute has expired, giving them the ability to modify the statute so the state can conduct background checks.

Legislative leadership in both the Assembly and Senate as well as Gov. Steve Sisolak have said they want to implement the mandatory background checks as well as ban bump stocks in Nevada.