May 17, 2023<\/p>\n
The Honorable Steve Yeager
\nSpeaker of the Nevada State Assembly
\nNevada Legislature
\n401 South Carson Street
\nCarson City, Nevada 89701<\/p>\n
Re:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assembly Bill 355 of the 82nd<\/sup> Legislative Session <\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Speaker Yeager:<\/p>\n I am forwarding to you, for filing within the time limit set forth in the Nevada Constitution and without my approval, Assembly Bill 355 (AB 355), which is titled as follows:<\/p>\n AN ACT relating to firearms; prohibiting a person who is less than 21\u00a0 years\u00a0 of\u00a0 age\u00a0 from\u00a0 possessing\u00a0 certain\u00a0 firearms;\u00a0 making\u00a0 it unlawful to aid or knowingly permit a person who is less than 21 years of age to possess a firearm under certain circumstances; revising provisions relating to the storage of a firearm; revising provisions relating to the handling, possession or control of a firearm by certain children; providing\u00a0 penalties;\u00a0 and\u00a0 providing\u00a0 other\u00a0 matters\u00a0 properly relating thereto.<\/p>\n AB 355 is presumably intended to decrease gun violence in communities across the state \u2013 an admirable goal.\u00a0 However, last year, in Jones v. Bonta<\/em>, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down as unconstitutional California\u2019s ban on the sale of semiautomatic rifles to adults younger than 21.\u00a0 In a 2-1 panel decision, the court found that the Second Amendment \u201cprotects the right of young adults to keep and bear arms, which includes the right to purchase them.\u201d\u00a0 This ruling was subsequently vacated by the Ninth Circuit so the trial court could readdress its legal findings after the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen<\/em>, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022).\u00a0 In Bruen<\/em>, the Court held that gun restrictions are constitutional only insofar as there is a tradition of such regulation in United States history.\u00a0 The United States has little, if any, tradition of entirely prohibiting the possession of semi-automatic firearms to those under 21 years of age.\u00a0 Additionally, this month, a federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, noting that the Second Amendment\u2019s protections \u201cextend in full to law-abiding adults aged eighteen or older[,]\u201d ruled that there was insufficient support for the proposition \u201cthat restrictions on the purchasing [and possession] of firearms by 18-20 year olds is part of our Nation\u2019s history and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, were this bill to become law, it is unlikely it would pass constitutional muster.<\/p>\n For these reasons, I veto this bill and return it to you without my signature or approval.<\/p>\n Respectfully submitted,<\/p>\n JOE LOMBARDO Enclosure<\/p>\n Cc:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Honorable Stavros Anthony, President of the Senate (without enclosure)<\/p>\n The Honorable Nicole Cannizzaro, Senate Majority Leader (without enclosure)<\/p>\n The Honorable Francisco Aguilar, Secretary of State (without enclosure)<\/p>\n Brendan Bucy, Secretary of the Senate (without enclosure)<\/p>\n Susan Furlong, Chief Clerk of the Assembly (without enclosure)<\/p>\n Brenda Erdoes, Esq., Legislative Counsel (without enclosure)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" May 17, 2023 The Honorable Steve Yeager Speaker of the Nevada State Assembly Nevada Legislature 401 South Carson Street Carson City, Nevada 89701 Re:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assembly Bill 355 of the 82nd Legislative Session Dear Speaker Yeager: I am forwarding to you, for filing within the time limit set forth in the Nevada Constitution and without my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88897,"featured_media":44943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3466],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46132"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88897"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46134,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46132\/revisions\/46134"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nevadanewsandviews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGovernor<\/p>\n