Ads target key gun rights lawmakers

The pressure is on. The Senate is expected to vote this week on a bill that could require background checks for people buying guns at gun shows and online, not just via the country’s 55,000 licensed firearms dealers.

And proponents are renewing a targeted TV ad campaign in states where votes from some key gun rights lawmakers might make a difference, including in Nevada.

The ad aimed at Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., and others asks people to “call your senators and urge them to join the bipartisan effort for comprehensive background checks.”

“Demand action. Now,” says the ad paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

Appealing to emotion, the ad shows a picture of grieving relatives following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Conn., that killed 20 children and six school staffers in December.

“The grief was staggering,” the ad says. “And now, more than 100 days after the massacre at Newtown, the U.S. Senate starts to act.”

The spot notes that about 90 percent of Americans polled support comprehensive background checks.

The ads are running in Nevada, Washington, D.C., and six other states, including Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, New Hampshire, North Dakota and Tennessee.

They target Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Last week, Heller showed an openness to have a full debate on gun control, including background checks. He and at least 10 other Republicans refused to join a GOP filibuster effort aimed at halting legislation being shepherded by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on behalf of President Barack Obama.

“I think we do have to have this discussion,” Heller said of the gun debate. “I want to have the discussion now.”

Heller and others have been exploring possible compromises to strengthen background checks for gun buyers, although the senator hasn’t yet committed to voting for any specific proposal.

“I’m just as solid with the Second Amendment as anybody out there,” Heller said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get guns out of the hands of those who have background issues or mental health issues. There has to be a way to solve that problem and tighten that up.”

Congress hasn’t approved major gun control legislation since enacting an assault weapons ban nearly two decades ago, although it expired after 10 years.

Reid has said the Senate will consider several amendments to the gun control bill, including for an assault weapons ban, limiting ammunition clips and expanding background checks of gun buyers. The bill also would strengthen laws against illicit gun trafficking and increase school safety, according to The Associated Press.

Closer to home, a state Senate committee last week approved two bills aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill individuals. One of the measures, Senate Bill 221, goes further and would expand background checks to all firearms purchases in Nevada, where gun shows are popular and gun rights opponents are vocal.

The Senate Health and Human Services Committee approved SB221 on a party-line vote, with three Democrats favoring the measure and two Republicans opposed. If that’s an indication of things to come as the bill moves through the Senate and the Assembly, it may barely pass since Democrats control both houses.

— Laura Myers

FUNNY THINGS HAPPEN HERE

Assembly Majority Leader William Horne, D-Las Vegas, was having fun on Twitter last week as lobbyists tried to get their bills through committees before a Friday deadline to pass out of the first committee or die.

You may need a translator to understand some of the insider tweets, but anyone in Carson City gets it.

Horne, whose Twitter handle is @WILLIAMHORNENV, began each tweet with, “Funny things that happen here”:

■ Funny things that happen here: Speaker: “I’m willing to work with U during the interim.” Lobbyist interpretation: She ain’t gonna pass it.”

■ Funny things that happen here: “Until sine die, dead bills aren’t really dead; they’re more or less in a coma. However, some are DNR.”

■ Funny things that happen here: 87% of Nevadans want univ bckgrd checks. Legislator: “That doesn’t mean we should do what they want.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Lobbyist: “Fingers crossed for painless day” Me: “If by painless you mean root canal, that’s likely.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Legislator: “Lift the sunsets.” Peanut gallery: “Isn’t that called sunrise?”

■ Funny things that happen here: Legislator: “I don’t like passing laws crims will break away.” Me: “Then lets not hv any laws. Y R U here?”

■ Funny things that happen here: Woman in bar here: “What do U thk abt sex ed?” Me: “My ex-wife wish I had taken it”

■ Funny things that happen here: Overheard: Staffer says “yea, wkend is almost here!” Lobbyist: “Big deal. It will only leave again.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Lobbyist getting bad news: “This place is like prison. I can’t leave & I’m getting screwed.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Chair: “Mr. Horne, I can’t believe U beat me 2 cmte!” Me: Mtg was sked 4 1pm, so I got here @ 1:20pm!”

■ Funny things that happen here: Activist: “Will U support minority for AD17?” Me: “I’ll support best qualified.” Activist: “What?”

■ Funny things that happen here: Overheard Assemblyman say: “These energy bills are draining me.” I guess he isn’t a LEED legislator.

■ Funny things that happen here: Freshman: “Chair, please move my bill.” Chair: “Will U compromise on AB***?” Freshman: “No.” Chair: “Then no.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Overheard in halls: “Marriage equality? There wasn’t any equality in any of my marriages.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Constituent: “Why won’t mining help fill the budget hole?” Me: “Cuz they’re used to digging holes instead.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Lobbyist #1: “U tryin 2 put out fires?” Lobbyist #2: “Why would I do that? Burn, baby, burn!”

■ Funny things that happen here: “Madam Speaker, if U impose a tax on us, we’ll leave the state.” Speaker: “Can I send over a U-Haul to help?”

■ Funny things that happen here: New Lobbyist: “On June 2nd, I leave for cruise.” Veteran Lobbyist: “Ur bills will die June 3rd #sinedie.

■ Funny things that happen here: 2 lobbyist try 2 compromise on impasse. #1 wants coin flip, #2 wants rock-paper-scissors. Argument ensues.

■ Funny things that happen here: “Chairman, Y won’t U bring my bill up 4 vote?” Chairman: “It’s a bad bill & no 1 likes it.” “So it’s dead?”

■ Funny things that happen here: “Will you accept my amendment to your bill? But even if you do, I’ll still openly oppose it.”

■ Funny things that happen here: Rptr: “I saw U whispering. What were U talking abt?” Me: “It’s a secret. Do you not know why people whisper?”

— Laura Myers

MARIJUANA SEAT AT UNLV?

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have had a lot of fun with themselves and the public since visiting a legal marijuana dispensary in Phoenix in March.

First senators gathered around Chairman Tick Segerblom’s desk on the Senate floor after their return to taste samples of his brownies.

No one later said they were anything more than actual brownies, although hinting they wished they had been.

Then on Thursday, just before his committee passed the bill to create medical marijuana dispensaries and grow houses for legal marijuana patients, a happy Segerblom joked that he was thinking about “endowing a medical marijuana seat at UNLV.”

The committee and audience laughed over that statement.

Some audience members even responded, “How about Reno?” for the medical marijuana seat.

— Ed Vogel

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.Contact Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.