Nevada Plan May Negate All Gun Controls

While California considers tighter gun control laws as a result of recent schoolyard slayings, neighboring Nevada lawmakers are deciding whether to remove firearm restrictions statewide.

A person already can buy a handgun in 16 of Nevada’s mostly rural counties with no questions asked except “Do you want bullets with that?” police say. But officials in holdout Clark County are fighting a proposal by Assemblyman Danny Thompson (D-Henderson) to invalidate the local government’s handgun control ordinances and give the state sole authority to regulate firearm sales, transfers, ownership and registration.

Thompson said Friday he is seeking “uniformity in the law. Clark County is the only place in the state . . . with gun restrictions. I’m in favor of the idea that I have a right to bear arms no matter where I’m at in the state.”

But Clark County Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Conner said if Thompson’s proposal is approved, the result would be no gun control at all.

The 23-year-old ordinance in Nevada’s largest county requires that guns be registered and imposes a 72-hour waiting period on first-time handgun buyers. The ordinance also prevents convicted felons, fugitives, narcotics sellers, “habitual drunkards,” the insane and organized crime members, among others, from buying a handgun.