Nevada Lawmakers Hear Bill on Gun Issues |

Pro-gun rights groups are preparing for another round of contentious debate as Nevada lawmakers hear a gun bill that seeks to ban bump stocks and allow local governments to pass their own gun laws.

Some people are calling AB291 the "1 October Bill" coming 18 months after the Route 91 Las Vegas shooting in 2017. Assem. Sandra Jauregui, D-Las Vegas is the bill's sponsor, and survived the shooting that killed 58 people.

"This is about public safety," Jauregui said. "This is about making Nevada a safer place. This is about introducing legislation that would help prevent another mass shooting."

"The intention is good, right? Nobody wants to have another October shooting but all we're going to do is, once again, criminalize a lot of people who have done absolutely nothing wrong and who are in fact, good, law-abiding citizens," Sen. Ira Hansen, R-Sparks said.

The bill would repeal Nevada's preemption laws that only allow the legislature to enact gun laws. Some say this would allows jurisdictions to pass gun laws that are intended to correct problems in their unique jurisdictions.

"No area in Nevada is the same," Jauregui said. "You might need different types of firearm regulations in the city of Las Vegas that you wouldn't in Sparks, so we need to be able to enable local governments to be able to enact firearm regulation that's deemed necessary for the area."

Opponents say it would create a patchwork of laws that would confuse residents as they travel from one town or county to another. It would allow jurisdictions to increase restrictions but not loosen them.

"Now you're going to have potentially 17 different counties with 17 different laws and you're going to make criminals out of people who simply cross the boundary of a county without even knowing what the laws are," Hansen said.

The bill would also lower the legal blood alcohol limit to carry a firearm from 0.10 to 0.08 percent.

Some groups say they are concerned Democrats will expedite passage of the measure like they did with a gun background check bill earlier this legislative session.

The bill expanding background checks was signed into law by Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak days after it received a committee hearing.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro says that process is not the intent with the gun measure scheduled to be heard Monday before a joint meeting of a Senate and Assembly committee.