Nevada voters passed a ballot question in November that stated private party gun transfers must be subject to the Federal NICS background checks. The FBI specifically, bypassing the state repository. There was one problem: the Feds refused to do it. The Nevada State Attorney General, Adam Paul Laxalt, in an opinion released after it received a refusal letter, has declared the ballot initiative “dead on arrival.”
The NICS system is administered by the FBI. The FBI has refuses to conduct background checks when the State of Nevada has their own system.
The Reno Gazette Journal reported, [Note the RGJ publication backed the ballot initiative]
The FBI sent a letter Dec. 14 to the state of Nevada’s Department of Public Safety saying it would not conduct these checks. The department asked for a legal opinion on the letter’s ramifications.
Because the text of the new Background Check Act says private-party transfers and sales must be done through the FBI background check system, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office opinion states, “citizens may not be prosecuted for their inability to comply with the Act unless and until the FBI changes its public position and agrees to conduct the background checks consistent with the Act.”
In a statement, the attorney general’s office said, “without this central feature (the FBI background check), the Background Check Act cannot commence.”
FBI resources did not appear to be taken into consideration when this measure was placed on the ballot. They would have to hire additional personnel to handle the influx of requests, which is redundant considering the NV system is in place.
The state already utilizes its own “central repository” for background checks on gun purchases. But the wording specifically required the transfers to go through NICS directly.
Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action was behind the ballot initiative. They reportedly spent around $20 Million to get it passed.
Under Nevada Law, the wording of the initiative cannot be changed for 3 years. The NV state attorney general’s opinion also stated that the law wasn’t just unenforceable, but “impossible” and relied on an error that stated “FBI background checks are quick and easy.”
“Because the Act expressly and centrally relies on this error and forbids the Department from being contacted to run background checks, it requires and criminalizes the impossible. Under longstanding legal principles, Nevadans are not required to perform the impossible, and are therefore excused from compliance with the Act’s background check requirement unless and until the FBI changes its position set forth in its December 14, 2016, letter.” NV Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt
