Key gun bill awaits Gov. Sandoval's signature

One of the most important gun bills of the 2015 Legislature has been placed on Gov. Brian Sandoval's desk with little fanfare, awaiting his signature to become law.

Senate Bill 175, was quietly passed through the state Senate Monday after an amendment to include "campus-carry" language in the Assembly failed last week. The bill had already been approved by the Senate.

Sandoval has eight days to sign the bill into law.

The bill mandates wide-ranging changes on Nevada guns laws, supported by many in the gun lobby at the Legislature.

The key provisions of SB 175 include:

… Barring a person with a domestic violence conviction from buying a gun,

… Ending Clark County's "blue card" law, which mandates owners of handguns to register them with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department;

… Honoring more out-of-state concealed-weapons permits of those visiting Nevada; and

… Extending the "castle doctrine," where you are allowed to use lethal force to protect yourself in your home, to include occupied vehicles.

The bill had support from Republicans in both houses. Eight Assembly Republicans voted to bar the controversial campus-carry provision from being added to the bill, fearing the Senate would not accept that and would be forced to kill the entire bill to stop the campus-carry provision.

The vote not to include campus carry sparked a split between members of the Assembly GOP caucus. Some members like Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks, and Michele Fiore, R-Las Vegas, wanted campus carry added to SB175 because they felt that was campus-carry's best shot at getting approved.

Yet Assemblyman Jim Wheeler, R-Minden, led the group who did not want to risk losing everything by attaching campus carry to SB175.

"We felt there was a possibility that SB175 could fail and we did not want to lose all of the good things in SB175," Wheeler said.

"I was not going to lose the blue card, I was not going to lose the 'castle doctrine' and the other issues that were in SB175 under any circumstances," Wheeler said. "I spoke with the NRA (National Rifle Association) and they were fine with it. I spoke to the Nevada Gun Owners and they were fine with it.

"As you know, I am the strongest Second Amendment guy in this place (Legislature) and I'm trying to make sure everything happens and not nothing happens," Wheeler said.