Nevada legislators: represent our interests, not Mayor Bloomberg's (Opinion)

Our new governor and legislature have begun to meet in session and show their true colors. It is not a pretty sight. One of their first acts this past week, by a party-line vote, was to pass legislation they characterized as “closing the gun show loophole” and “common sense gun regulation.” With a title like that, you know there’s nothing “common sensical” about it.

First of all, there is no gun show loophole. Gun shows take place all over the United States on a regular basis. They’re an opportunity for people with an interest in shooting and related activities to gather and show off their guns and other goods that are part of the shooting sports, such as optics, extreme weather clothing, and military paraphernalia. If you are interested in buying one of the guns on display you go through the same background check as you would go through if you purchase from a store. No loophole there.

You can expect to meet a lot of people with an interest in firearms at a gun show, and some of them might well bring a gun with them and try to sell to an interested party. But if they do this more than five times a year they qualify as a dealer and have to submit all the background check paperwork like any other dealer. Don’t ask: “who counts to see if they’re selling more than five times?” The simple answer is: “the same people who are tracking a person’s criminal record and tell a seller he can or cannot sell someone a gun.”

And they’re no more competent at this than they were when the last two mass shooters passed their NICS check because someone forgot to alert the FBI about a person’s wife beating or drug conviction. Governor Sisolak made his reputation during the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, perpetrated by a lunatic who – get this – passed all the appropriate background checks. So much for background checks. But our Governor managed to keep his name in the news for months.

It is possible sales might take place near, but outside the gun show. This is no more a “gun show loophole” than it is for me to sell a rifle to a neighbor, except it takes place near the Reno Convention Center at the same time a gun show is in progress there. Calling it a gun show loophole is dishonest.

In fact, the entire campaign is dishonest. We (Nevada voters) are told this legislation was passed two years ago by a majority of Nevadans. Actually, it was passed by Clark County, with enormous (and I do mean enormous) lobbying by New York Governor Bloomberg, who spent millions of dollars pushing this initiative in the Silver State.

“Why,” you may well ask, “would the former governor of New York spend his own money lobbying for a ballot initiative in Nevada?” The answer is simple: because we are a small state, with a small number of voters, so it is easier to buy electoral results here. And every state where he succeeds is another state to add momentum to his effort to impose his anti-gun agenda on the nation as a whole.

Look, we’re all interested in stopping mass shootings. It is entirely possible gun owners are more interested in doing so than people who do not own guns. We have more to lose, after all.

The truth is, most firearms used in criminal activity are acquired through illegal means: home burglary, or black market sales. “Gun show loophole sales” are not statistically relevant in records of firearms transfers. The guy who shot up the office in Aurora, Illinois, last week, passed a background check because someone in an office somewhere forgot (or neglected) to enter into his background information that would have prevented a firearms purchase. This is more common than you can imagine. Don’t dump on gun shows – dump on the Army clerk who neglects to enter a wife beater into the system.

The sad reality is that if Nevada legislators are unsuccessful at stopping gun violence, they can merely ratchet up the restrictions on gun ownership. If the law they passed this past week doesn’t work they won’t say “oh, well, that law was a failure.” Rather, they will say “well it’s obvious we need to make it even harder to buy a gun.”

Because it is never their idea that it is wrong, it is that they didn’t reach far enough. So you may rest assured, they will reach further next time.

The truth is, Mayor Bloomberg should stop dumping millions of his personal dollars into our elections. And our legislature should stop taking his money, and start representing their constituents. Nevadans would be better off with that reality.