Opinion: State can try again on gun checks

CARSON CITY — A legal opinion from Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt on a stalled private gun sale background check measure said Gov. Brian Sandoval can ask again the FBI to perform the work.

But the legal analysis issued Thursday also said there are potential safety risks should Nevada change from its current status in which all background checks are performed by the state.

Sandoval sought the opinion on Oct. 4, days after 58 people were killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Ballot Question 1, narrowly approved by voters last November and set to take effect this year, requires background checks on private-party gun transfers, similar to sales made when someone buys a gun through a licensed dealer.

But unlike retail sales, the initiative said that dealers conducting background checks for private transfers had to contact the FBI’S National Instant Criminal Background Check System to determine whether the buyer was legally eligible to buy or possess firearms.

The FBI has twice refused to conduct the checks, putting the enforcement of the measure in limbo.

The attorney general’s opinion said it does not disagree with background check supporters that Sandoval can return to the FBI “with a proposed policy solution.”

But the opinion said that to implement the ballot measure, Nevada would be asking the FBI to perform background checks not required federal law, while the state would continue to perform those checks that are required by federal law.

No state has such an arrangement. The background checks performed by the state are considered superior to a background check that would be performed by the FBI, the opinion said.

Any change to the system “would be trading a superior, safe system for an inferior, less comprehensive one,” the opinion said. “This is an important policy consideration that should be weighed against competing policy considerations, including those advanced by the Nevadans for Background Checks.”