RGJ story reignites background check debate

Dogged reporting by the Reno Gazette-Journal's Martha Bellisle has resulted in revelations sure to reinvigorate the background check debate in Nevada.

This is almost the perfect storm for gun control advocates still smarting from Gov. Brian Sandoval's veto of Senate Bill 221, which would have extended background checks to private sales. The measure was seen by some as a common-sense measure but was pilloried by foes as an incursion into Second Amendment rights, which Sandoval parroted in his veto message.

The story by Bellisle has it all: An almost-minor (19 years old) buys a gun from an on-duty cop (!). The buyer is later found to have been adjudicated as mentally ill, which would have been discovered in a background check -- that is, if a coding mistake had not prevented him from being in the data base, as Bellisle reported. And the 19-year-old's mother is outraged because the parents petitioned just recently for and were awarded guardianship of the teen. 

Sandoval's office (rightly) argues that the bill would not have been law when the sale occurred. But that will be lost on those who want to keep this debate going into Campaign 2014 -- and that would include bill sponsor Justin Jones and Mayors Against Illegal Guns. And maybe, just maybe Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak.

Bellisle, who will be on "Ralston Reports" this evening, also obtained text messages between the cop and the man. In the petition for guardianship, the teen's parents write "the proposed ward is unable to respond to the risk of phsyical harm or make decisions necessary for the preservation of his personal well-being...."

Just the kind of person you'd want owning a gun.

 

 

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