NRA gun rights arm launches website to defeat Nevada ballot Question 1

CARSON CITY — The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action has launched an informational website to stop the “Californication” of Nevadans’ gun rights.

The www.votenoquestion1.com website “exposes the truth” about how a universal background check would criminalize the commonplace activities of many Nevada gun owners, the group announced Wednesday.

The background check measure will be on the Nov. 8 general election ballot. It was qualified through the initiative process and is before Nevada voters because the Legislature did not enact the measure in the 2015 session.

The measure would extend firearm background checks to private party sales and some transfers.

A Nevada group called Nevadans for Background Checks is advocating for the passage of the question.

“The law-abiding gun owners of Nevada need to know that Question 1 would cost them their money and their freedom,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said. “This ballot initiative was bought and paid for by outside gun control groups bent on the Californication of Nevada. Armed with the facts, we believe the freedom-loving people of Nevada will reject Question 1.

“The out-of-state gun control groups behind Question 1 don’t have a network of grassroots supporters like the NRA has,” she said. “Our strength as an organization has always been our members. They are smart, informed, and engaged.”

Jennifer Crowe, communications director for Nevadans for Background Checks, said their campaign is backed by more than 50 law enforcement, faith, business and community leaders from across Nevada, and includes an endorsement from the Nevada Association of Public Safety Officers, representing nearly 1,500 police officers across the state. Hundreds of volunteers are working to get the measure to require criminal background checks on all gun sales passed, she said.

According to the NRA, the measure is poorly written and was paid for by the anti-gun New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg-funded group Everytown for Gun Safety. Of the $3.6 million in contributions to Nevadans for Background Checks over the last two years, $2.9 million came from Everytown.

The NRA said the gun-control initiative will tax already scarce law enforcement resources and will not prevent criminals and dangerous people from obtaining firearms.

Contact Sean Whaley at swhaley@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-3820. Find @seanw801 on Twitter.