SB 115-Open Carry Revenge Bill/Library Gun Free Zones

SB 115, Senator Moises Denis (D) and Assemblywoman Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod (D)

This bill would amend NRS 202.265 to prohibit firearms (openly or concealed) at public libraries, except with written permission of the Board of Trustees, even in the parking lot.

X Oppose

This bill is revenge for open carriers defying the totally illegal firearms ban for Las Vegas area libraries, of which Assemblywoman Bilbray-Axelrod was a trustee. 

SB 115 proposes to ban legally carried firearms even in the parking lots of libraries. The bill seeks to add libraries to the law prohibiting firearms at schools and daycares because citizens dared exercise their Second Amendment rights in defiance of the notoriously anti-gun Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (LVCCLD). In the whole state, only LVCCLD enforces such a policy and has repeatedly broken state law, which prohibits local authorities from regulating firearms.

Ironically, one politician, soon to be termed-out Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod, now an assemblywoman, followed up on her promise to introduce an anti-open carry bill in the Legislature. Shannon Bilbray-Axelrod was present during the November 2015 LVCCLD board meeting where several citizens and then Assemblywoman Shelton, spoke against the library district’s illegal actions.

LVCCLD prohibits firearms, contrary to state law which explicitly prevents local authorities from enforcing such policies. In fact, the library district policy was created administratively without legal authority. These actions were in total defiance of not just the state preemption of local firearm regulation laws, but the very law that the library district was claiming as its authority to enforce its anti-open carry policy. The Board of Trustees, who are required to vote and approve any such policies, never voted on the policy in question.

Pursuant to state law, concealed carry is prohibited in public (government) buildings where “no guns” signs or metal detectors are present at each public entrance. Open carry is legal in virtually every non-school public building, a fact confirmed in an opinion from the Legislative Counsel Bureau in 2015. Only the Legislature may prohibit firearms in certain places.

The library administration made their own policy; this power belongs exclusively to the Board of Trustees. Previously, the Board of Trustees’ approved Code of Conduct (pre-July 2016) only prohibited concealed firearms, affirming state law. Subsequently, the Code of Conduct was wholly re-written in July of 2016 to prohibit: “Possession of weapons or dangerous items of any kind.” This re-write explicitly violates the provisions of state preemption laws.

The Board of Trustees, library administrators, and Clark County Commissioners and city councilmen have no authority to prohibit guns in any government building. These facts have been made public to a candid world and ignored by appointed officials, elected officials, and judges.

There have been no incidents of crime, violence, or threats to safety because of openly carried firearms in libraries. The only issues (in fact as a whole nationwide, as it seems) were caused by overzealous anti-gun library officials. LVCCLD went so far as to have a mother arrested and trespassed from the library enforcing its illegal policy, though charges were dropped.

In response to scathing criticism, state law, and a lawsuit, Bilbray-Axelrod and Denis have introduced this bill with no factual need whatsoever. There is no threat to public safety; there has never been. This is an anti-gun bill, plain and simple, and over-reaction to hurt feelings and citizens who dared standup to petty tyrants in local government. This bill is nothing more than a personal fuck you to open carriers, gun owners, and those that believe in public accountability by government officials.

This bill must be opposed. If signed into law, it would prohibit firearms even in the parking lots of libraries, meaning one would couldn’t even park on library property if they cared for their own self-defense. Open carry is a constitutionally protected right, hinted at in Peruta v. Gore, a decision that currently applies to Nevada, and in countless historical decisions by other state’s courts. In fact, firearms were not prohibited at all in any public building until the 1990s. 

There is no problem except with intransigent liberal petty tyrants. If this becomes law, state preemption could be further eroded by any local government or future legislators that hate gun rights. In California, after campus carry was banned, state legislators are this year attempting to take away local school district's authority to grant permission to carry concealed firearms simply because school districts are doing it. Don't help make Nevada California.

You can send your comments on the bill to the Legislature by clicking here. Be sure to enter “SB115” and select the "Against" button. Catalog of library-open carry topics here.

Senate Judiciary Committee
Tick Segerblom, Chair
Nicole Cannizzaro, Vice Chair

For your convenience, you can copy/paste the following into your email message:

tsegerblom@sen.state.nv.us; Michael.Roberson@sen.state.nv.us; Moises.Denis@sen.state.nv.us; Don.Gustavson@sen.state.nv.us; Becky.Harris@sen.state.nv.us; Aaron.Ford@sen.state.nv.us; Nicole.Cannizzaro@sen.state.nv.us;

SenJUD@sen.state.nv.us (Only to submit letters/exhibits for Committee hearings.)

Nevada Carry is not a lobbyist organization and does not claim to represent anyone.