Caught on Tape: Gun Sales with No Background Check at Nevada Gun Show, Days after Vegas Shooting

‘No Background Checks?’: As Reported Last Night by the CBS Evening News, Footage Shows It Remains Easy to Buy a Gun Without a Background Check Even After Las Vegas Mass Shooting

Nevada’s Governor and Attorney General Were Sued Last Week for Refusing to Enforce the Background Check Law Voters Passed Last Year

LAS VEGAS – Everytown for Gun Safety, the country’s largest gun violence prevention organization, today released video footage recorded at a Nevada gun show in which a private investigator licensed in Nevada was able to purchase multiple firearms without background checks – including rifles similar to those recovered with the Mandalay Bay shooter. The footage, recorded 6 days after Las Vegas experienced the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, makes clear that it remains easy to buy a gun without a background check in Nevada because Gov. Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Adam Laxalt have refused to enforce the background check law passed last year by voters.

A lawsuit was filed Thursday against the governor and attorney general over their refusal to implement the successful background check initiative, which closed the loophole for unlicensed sales and required background checks on all gun sales in the state, with reasonable exceptions for family, hunting and self-defense.

“A picture is worth a thousand words, and this video proves that enforcing the background check law passed by Nevadans is a matter of public safety,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Gov. Sandoval and Attorney General Laxalt have refused to do their jobs, and so even after the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history, it’s still easy in Nevada to buy guns without background checks — including the same types of rifles found with the Las Vegas shooter.”

Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct criminal background checks on most gun sales, but a loophole exists allowing unlicensed sales, including sales online and at gun shows, to take place without background checks. Nevada’s background check initiative, which voters approved last November with a majority of votes, closed that loophole. Eighteen other states have passed similar laws and see fewer gun deaths among law enforcement and victims of domestic violence, as well as fewer suicides by firearm, than states that have not closed the loophole.

“Now that a lawsuit has been filed, Gov. Sandoval has to decide: Will he keep blocking the background check law that voters passed or will he do his job and work to implement it? This should be an easy decision – and this disturbing video should make it even easier,” said Elizabeth Becker, volunteer with the Nevada chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.