Businessman Steve Wynn says Nevada’s gun control ballot initiative–Question 1–contains so many constraints that a soldier leaving for deployment would be in violation of the law were he to leave a gun behind with his fiancée.
The initiative treats loaning a gun or, in this case, leaving a gun, as equivalent to privately transferring one, and private transfers would require background checks if Question 1 were passed.
During a November 7 appearance on Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Wynn said:
Under this new law, if this referendum issue passes, if I were a single fella or I was in the service and I had a gun in my home and I wanted to leave it in the possession of my girlfriend, my fiance…then I would be guilty of an unlawful transaction. Not the [person receiving the gun], but the person who failed to go to a gun shop.
He said these things after first admitting he had initially supported Question 1–then he read it. Upon reading it he realized the onus would be on the soldier who was leaving the gun; that the soldier would be guilty for not going to a gun store to get government approval to leave a gun with his fiancée or friend.
Wynn said he also discovered that Question 1 could cancel gun purchases for persons who have been accused of crimes, “but not convicted.” And it could also stop recreational marijuana users from making private gun purchases.
On August 31 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that a ban on gun sales to marijuana card holders is constitutional. Form 4473 of the background check process asks if the would-be firearm purchaser is “an unlawful user of…marijuana.” No one who answers “yes” to that question can purchase a gun.
Wynn is simply observing that by expanding the instances in which background checks occur, Nevadans will be unwittingly diminishing the number of people who will be able to exercise Second Amendment rights. Ironically, Wynn’s comments come a day before Nevadans also get to vote on Question 2, an initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in Nevada.
People who vote “yes” for Question 1 and Question 2 may be surprised to learn that Question 1 will block the exercise of their Second Amendment rights if they smoke the marijuana they voted to legalize.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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