By Alexia Shurmur
LAS VEGAS, June 13 (Reuters) – Nevada Governor Brian
Sandoval on Thursday vetoed Democratic-backed legislation that
would have strengthened gun-control rules by requiring
background checks on customers in all gun sales in the state,
including private transactions.
The Republican governor said in a veto statement that the
bill amounted to an erosion of Nevadans’ constitutional right to
bear arms that would do “little to prevent criminals from
unlawfully obtaining firearms.”
The bill, which narrowly passed in the state Senate in May
and was approved by the Assembly in June, would have also
required Nevada courts to send information about legal
defendants who are found to be mentally ill to a national
clearinghouse for all new gun purchases within five business
days after the finding.
The veto came as Democratic lawmakers across the country
pushed for stricter gun-control laws following mass shootings
last year including the December massacre of 20 children and six
adults at a Connecticut elementary school.
“Rather than sign sensible legislation that keeps guns out
of the hands of convicted felons and the mentally ill, Governor
Sandoval has decided to preserve the loopholes that they use to
buy guns,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement
from the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition.
Sandoval said in his veto message that he supported efforts
to strengthen reporting requirements for the mentally ill but
not the background check measure, which he said would have
imposed “severe criminal penalties” on anyone who violates the
required background check provision.
He said the bill, which the Nevada Sheriffs’ and Chiefs
Association criticized as unenforceable, would have barred
anyone convicted of violating it from possessing a gun for two
years, and indefinitely on a second offense.
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Peter Cooney)
