An amendment to a wide-ranging gun bill that passed out of state Senate committee today includes temporary gun confiscation measures if a person is deemed a risk to themselves or others.
The amendment would allow police, family or household members request a court order to temporarily confiscate guns from someone considered a danger.
“Members, I urge you to support this bill that will help give families and law enforcement the tools they need to make Nevada a safer place,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas, who is a survivor of the Oct. 1, 2017, Strip mass shooting.
If someone filed a request under the proposed law to harass another person, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, 15 states — including Colorado, California, Washington and Oregon in the West — have passed so-called red flag laws.
Dan Reid, the western regional director with the National Rifle Association, opposed the bill. He called the measure a violation of Second Amendment rights and criticized it as an attack on due process. “Our due process protections are very low here,” he said.
The amendment also drops a provision that would have allowed local governments to pass stricter gun regulations than the state and makes it a misdemeanor to negligently store a gun in a place a child could reasonably get at it.
Janine Hansen, a lobbyist with the conservative group Nevada Families for Freedom, took issue with the gun-storage provision, saying firearms owners should teach their children the consequences of improperly handling guns.
Alyson Gilles, a volunteer with gun safety group Moms Demand Action, supports the bill, saying it provides “a mechanism to prevent harm.”
“These laws are becoming a vital tool in states throughout the nation to prevent mass shootings, school shootings and firearm suicides,” she said.
The bill, as amended, passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. It now goes to the full Senate, with less than a week left in the legislative session. The bill passed the Assembly last month.
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© 2019 the Las Vegas Sun (Las Vegas, Nev.)
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