Gun background bill clears Senate, moves to Assembly

Nevada Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, listens to testimony from lobbyist Carol Vilardo during a hearing at the Legislative Building in Carson City on Thursday, March 26, 2015. (Cathleen Allison/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

CARSON CITY — The Nevada Senate unanimously approved a bill Thursday that would make background checks on private gun sales voluntary and available free of charge.

Senate Bill 240, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Michael Roberson, R-Henderson, also would require courts to transmit within five business days any order, judgment, conviction or plea involving a finding of mental illness to the state’s criminal history repository.

The vote that sent the bill to the Assembly came after state Sen. Joyce Woodhouse, D-Henderson, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to require people under protection orders to surrender their firearms and prevent convicted stalkers from obtaining them.

The measure also would require that if a patient makes an explicit threat of violence, a mental health worker must inform the threatened person and notify law enforcement.

During a hearing earlier before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Roberson said the bill aims to keep guns out of the hands of those suffering from mental illness “without enacting overly restrictive gun control laws and thus upholding our constitutional rights.”

Nevadans in 2016 will vote on a citizens initiative that seeks to make background checks mandatory for all gun sales and transfers.

Contact Sandra Chereb at schereb@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901. Find her on Twitter: @SandraChereb.