(Victor Joecks, Las Vegas Review-Journal) – It’s much easier to look for a scapegoat than admit you made a $20 million mistake.
That’s what Nevadans for Background Checks tried to do during a Friday news conference that called on Attorney General Adam Laxalt to enforce its background-check initiative.
Last fall’s Question 1 ballot initiative mandated background checks for private-party gun sales and transfers. The initiative writers could have required that Nevada perform the background checks for those transactions. Instead, they required licensed dealers to do them through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
“The reason it was written saying that NICS was going to do it, if we did it point of contact through the state, it would have added money to every one of those background checks,” said Elizabeth Becker, spokeswoman for the Nevada Chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We did not want it to be a tax.”
Translated: Background checks wouldn’t have passed if voters knew there would be a cost.
