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Democrats in Nevada’s congressional delegation have pushed several gun control measures in the six months since the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas, but the measures have stalled, and many advocates blame the millions spent by the National Rifle Association.
High-capacity magazines, bump stocks and gun violence research are just some of the topics within proposed laws.
Meanwhile, measures are moving forward to support school safety and allow concealed carry permits to be recognized across state lines. The concealed carry reciprocity legislation passed the House after it was amended to also close reporting loopholes in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., said Republicans rejected background check reporting without concealed carry.
“You were either voting for expanded concealed carry to fix NICS or you had to vote against the Fix NICS bill to be opposed to the concealed carry,” Titus said in a December interview. “I argue they should not have done that.”
Efforts to ban bump stocks deregulated under former President Barack Obama stalled in Congress before President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to regulate the devices. On March 10, the department announced that it was taking steps to include bump stocks in the definition of “machine gun,” which are restricted under the National Firearms Act. UNLV professor Ian Bartrum said an administrative change would be more susceptible to legal challenges, while congressional changes would be virtually unassailable.
Nevada’s Democratic delegation in Washington stood alongside Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., after the shooting in Las Vegas to introduce a ban on high-capacity magazines. Esty has been pushing for the legislation since she took office in 2013, the year after a gunman killed 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn.
After the Parkland, Fla., school shooting left 17 dead on Valentine’s Day, the House passed the STOP School Violence Act, aimed at investing in training to help school communities better identify possible threats. Republican Sen. Dean Heller, who has accepted $125,302 in direct and indirect contributions from the NRA, according to OpenSecrets.org, is one of the bill’s cosponsors in the Senate and is also among 72 cosponsors of the Senate’s version of the Fix NICS Act of 2017, which has yet to receive a hearing under Republican leadership.
“These two initiatives have wide, bipartisan support in the U.S. Senate and from the White House,” Heller said in a statement.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat who is also pushing legislation to allow the Centers for Disease Control to research firearms safety or gun violence prevention, said the Senate had not voted on or debated a single piece of gun violence prevention legislation since the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas. Language in the omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump notes that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has the authority to conduct research on the causes of gun violence, but it does not include any money to carry out any such study. The National Rifle Association says the omnibus bill reiterates that federal agencies including the CDC cannot use appropriations “to advocate or promote gun control.”
“It is clear to me where Republican leadership’s priorities lie,” Cortez Masto said. “It is not saving the lives of children being slaughtered at our schools, or protecting our right to attend a concert without unknowingly entering a war zone. Rather, congressional Republican leadership is beholden to the gun lobby and the millions of dollars they funnel to prop up their campaigns.”
She said the outpouring of protests from students and others since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., had been inspiring.
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., who is signed onto the concealed carry reciprocity act, accepted $18,640 in direct and indirect donations from the NRA during his career in Congress, according to OpenSecrets.org. Amodei said in December that there were millions coming in from both sides of the gun debate. On the reciprocity bill, Amodei said one of Congress’ responsibilities was to bring uniformity when there were conflicts with state laws on federal issues.
In Nevada, Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control group backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spent millions pushing the passage of Nevada’s failed gun background check law. Filings with the secretary of state’s office show Everytown put more than $14.5 million toward Nevadans for Background Checks, which advocated for the ballot initiative.
The Nevada attorney general’s office has said it cannot enforce the state’s narrowly approved law without cooperation from the FBI, which had balked at the state’s attempt to dictate its use of resources by funneling private sale checks through the federal agency. Gun control advocates say the state could act to fix the law so that it can be enforced, and a lawsuit has been filed against Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Laxalt to force the law’s implementation.
“There are gun groups that are uber conservative, there are gun groups that are anti-gun, and there’s everybody in between,” Amodei said. “In terms of the issues,” his office considers each individually, he said.
Rep. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat running for Senate against Heller, has also pointed to the power of pro-gun groups in Congress and of gun control groups that seek to educate people about the need for new laws.
“I hope my colleagues across the aisle do not kowtow to the gun lobby and think about the rights of the gun owner, who also wants to go to the concert, who also wants to go to church, and think about the public safety issue of it,” Rosen said.
Rep. Ruben Kihuen, a Democrat who is not running for re-election after being accused of sexual harassment, says Everytown is supporting background checks that most Nevada residents support. The NRA, he said, is “buying politicians and buying votes.”
“These shootings are going to continue happening because Republicans who are controlled by the NRA refuse to take action here in Congress, but that doesn’t mean that we slow down,” Kihuen said. “Now more than ever we have to continue raising our voice and pushing for Congress to pass common-sense legislation so we can prevent this type of gun violence in the future.”