Assemblyman Almost Incriminates Himself For Breaking Gun Law
By Andrew Doughman / Nevada News Bureau
CARSON CITY – Assemblyman Kelly Kite, R-Minden, learned he may have broken a law yesterday during a Commerce and Labor committee hearing.
The committee was debating a bill about the interstate sale of rifles and shotguns. Current law bans the interstate sale of those guns in states that do not have a border with Nevada.
Kite posed what he later called a “quasi-hypothetical” question about whether buying a Remington Model 1100 12-gauge shotgun eight years ago in Missouri would be illegal under current law.
The committee generally concurred that it would be.
The bill in question would strike the law to put Nevada’s law more in line with federal provisions of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986. Nevada’s law requires residents to buy rifles and shotguns in Nevada or in a state with a border to Nevada.
The federal act allows a broader interstate sale of rifles and shotguns.
“Did I buy the gun? Yes,” Kite said in his office today. “But it’s not illegal.”
Kite looked into the law after the hearing and realized he had not broken it.
He said that he bought the shotgun from his brother. Even though the current law bans the interstate sale of shotguns, the provisions of that law apply to federally-licensed gun dealers.
Kite said his story only reinforces the need for the bill.
“Many gun dealers are not aware of Nevada’s law,” he said.
Kite is a co-sponsor of the bill.
Assembly Bill 217 was not voted out of committee yesterday, but it enjoys bipartisan support in both the Assembly and Senate.
The committee chair, Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, held the bill for a vote at a later date.
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