Exactly six months after the shootings in Newtown, Conn., advocates for new gun legislation are seeing another setback.
Nevada’s Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval vetoed a bill Thursday that would have required a background check for anyone in the state seeking to buy a firearm. The Nevada Senate passed the legislation in May and the state Assembly approved it early last week.
Although Sandoval supported some of the bill’s provisions, in a statement announcing his veto, he explained that he was concerned about complicating private gun sales between family members, and cited a request to veto the measure from the Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs’ Association.
“While I support enhanced reporting requirements concerning mentally ill persons, the provisions of Senate Bill 221 pertaining to background checks for the private sale and transfer of firearms constitute an erosion of Nevadans’ Second Amendment rights under the United States Constitution and may subject otherwise law-abiding citizens to criminal prosecution.”
Before Sandoval made his final decision on whether to sign the legislation, his office set up a special hotline for calls on the issue. People dialing his number would hear, “You have reached the office of Governor Brian Sandoval. If you are calling to vote in support of Senate Bill 221 please press one. If you are calling to vote against Senate Bill 221 please press two.”
More than 100,000 calls came in, and the Las Vegas Sun reported that about three quarters of them were people against the bill.
This is while a recent poll from a left-learning nonprofit found that 86% of Nevada residents support background checks for all gun purchases.
Since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December that killed 26 people, new gun control laws have been passed in Connecticut, New York, and Colorado. Family members of the shooting victims are back in Washington, D.C., this week, pushing lawmakers for new national action on gun reform.
Sandoval’s deadline to respond to respond to the Nevada bill was Friday. He announced his veto Thursday.
Watch msnbc’s Rachel Maddow below for her coverage on Nevada’s vetoed background check bill.
Kailani Koenig