Nevada AG halts UBC's

[2ndsojourn]

The Nevada AG is halting the expanded background checks for private sales because the FBI won't do the checks.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...0709313&PID=6165145&SID=ixapor030y016gad00dth

Nevada is one of the states that relies on their own background check system, and the FBI doesn't want the financial burden. My guess is that whoever dreamed up this law forgot to do their research or consult with the feds, as the FBI is only obligated to enforce federal gun laws?

 

[natman]

It's one thing to want something, but if you want it to actually happen you have to figure out how to pay for it.

 

[carguychris]

My guess is that whoever dreamed up this law forgot to do their research or consult with the feds...

Seems that way.

...as the FBI is only obligated to enforce federal gun laws?

Basically yes, although I'll explain it a little more concisely.

States have two options when it comes to NICS checks: do it themselves, or opt out and let the FBI do it.

As pointed out in the linked article, the first option allows the state to take things into account that the Feds might miss, since the state can conduct more detailed checks of local LE and mental health records since they have more direct oversight of the agencies. Of course, this costs the state money.

The second option is essentially the minimum-standard fallback. It costs the state nothing directly, but the FBI might miss the fact that a felony warrant for the potential buyer was issued in Podunk County 2 days ago.

The Feds are essentially saying that there is no third half-and-half option. A state must go completely one way or the other.

 

[dogtown tom]

This is hysterically funny.

Licensed dealers across the country (including Nevada) have been conducting background checks for private party transfer for years. Log in from Party 1, Party 2 fills out 4473 and conducts background check through FBI NICS or State POC, log out to Party 2.


Since Obama couldn't get his UBC through Congress, ATF came up with this procedure for dealers to "facilitate" a private party transfer. Apparently no one told the FBI because ATF Issued this Open Letter to FFL's three years ago:
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/open-letter/all-ffls-jan2013-open-letter-facilitating-transfers-firearms-between/download

 

[carguychris]

I wonder if the oversight was actually an ill-considered gamble by the ballot measure's backers to allow them to argue that the measure would cost NV taxpayers nothing.

If the measure required the state to do the checks, someone would inevitably come up with a dollar figure, and it would probably be a big one.

This outcome is even funnier if one considers that losing at gambling is kinda a Nevada tradition.

Of course, there's always Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

[Frank Ettin]

I wonder if the oversight was actually an ill-considered gamble by the ballot measure's backers to allow them to argue that the measure would cost NV taxpayers nothing....

Sort of, that's my understanding, at least.

As I heard it, if the private background checks were to be done on the Nevada system, just as with regular FFL business, the initiative proponents would have been required to disclose in campaign material and/or in the ballot text an estimate of the cost to the State. To avoid that they wrote the law to require the use of NICS.

So this is a good example of how important attention to detail can be. The UBC folks got "hoist on their own petard" by failing to fully think things through. They blithely assumed that the FBI would be tickled pink for the opportunity to do the background checks.

 

[carguychris]

They blithely assumed that the FBI would be tickled pink for the opportunity to do the background checks.

One wonders if this had to do with a rash assumption that a certain major federal election had an all but guaranteed outcome, by a landslide...

 

[brasscollector]

I would say it's more a rash of assumptions rather than merely a rash assumption.

 

[Tom Servo]

The UBC folks got "hoist on their own petard" by failing to fully think things through.

And the ballot initiative cost Michael Bloomberg $20 million. That's one expensive petard.

 

[Jim Watson]

I wonder if the law will be used by an anti PD and DA to prosecute Nevada Commoners for having unregistered guns. The AG may say it is unenforceable but an anti could run you through the courts for quite a while before you got cut loose.