EDITORIAL: Blue-card banishment
While Americans enjoy a level of independence that is arguably among the highest in the world, there is also no doubt that many of our freedoms are constantly under attack from every level of government. And no freedom has faced more scrutiny lately than the rights granted by the Second Amendment.
So whenever law-abiding citizens score a victory, no matter how small, it’s reason to celebrate, and Clark County citizens did just that last weekend.
As the Review-Journal’s Wesley Juhl reported, about 250 residents gathered Saturday at a North Las Vegas gun shop to revel in the end of the the county’s blue-card gun registration program. Gun owners were invited to the New Frontier Armory to shred their blue cards. The ordinance was rightly shot down earlier this year via Senate Bill 175, with the state law now reserving the right to regulate firearms to the Legislature.
Mr. Juhl noted that for decades, Clark County’s ordinance has required firearms capable of being concealed to be registered. However, the ordinance hasn’t been found to be anything more than an imposition on law-abiding gun owners. It’s not an effective tool against crime, because criminals -- surprise! -- don’t tend to follow the law anyway.
Indeed, this was the elimination of an expensive bureaucratic process that served no productive purpose for police. Clark County was the only county in Nevada that had such a requirement.
Even new Sheriff Joe Lombardo backed repealing the expensive mandate well before the proposal of AB127, and he quickly followed through in order to comply with the new state law. Early last month, Metro announced that it would stop registering guns and issuing citations for failing to do so.
If every level of government were as willing to look at a program that did not deliver benefits even remotely close to the costs incurred, we’d be more free and wouldn’t have to spend so much taxpayer money supporting bureaucracies’ ability to enforce dubious regulations. Here in Nevada, our congressional delegation, the 2017 Legislature, and all county and municipal governments should accept that challenge and deliver more freedom to the citizens for whom they work.
