This is the sticky I wrote for the Nevada Shooters forum:
If you are a resident of Clark County (defined as being here 60+ days at a time), you are required by county ordinance to register your handguns. For the purposes of this ordinance, this only applies to handguns with barrels less than 12" and designed to be fired with one hand, so AR and AK type pistols are not to be registered.
You are required only to register, and are required to do so within 72-hours of taking ownership. You will be given a blue receipt card. There is no requirement to carry, or even to retain this card. Police have been retrained a few years ago and will readily admit this now. They will sometimes still ask for it (violation of 4th Amendment, but oh well...) but they can/will run the gun in their computer whether you present a blue card or not. There have been reports of the system not being updated correctly and registrations not getting into the system. In this case, a blue card will help convince someone that you did your part to register, but it is not "proof" as they are easy to fake/steal. Your best proof would be independent documentation, such as your own personal video/audio recording of your time spent with such government agents.
The biggest (only) benefit to having the card available is that it can be used as an exemption to the county's highly illegal 72-hour waiting period imposed on first handgun purchases, something also done in the incorporated cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Some gun shops will also accept your CCW permit in lieu of a blue card for this purpose, but some will not.
If you are a resident of another county, it does not matter how frequently you visit Clark, you are not required to register your handguns here, even if you work in Clark and carry the handgun here. Several years ago, it was even clarified to the gun shops that they are not supposed to register your handguns even if you buy them in Clark.
Note the example card that I pilfered from the Internet (there is a photo credit built into the image). While State Preemption laws have specifically allowed Clark to maintain (so far) this registration program, it has done so with specific language. All other requirements of the ordinance are null and void. So while there has always been confusion over the 'shall cause to be registered' clause, there is no legal requirement for a seller (transferor) to do so. It is probably in a seller's best interests to know that the firearm has indeed been registered to the new owner, obviously. But if the new owner is a resident of another county (or Boulder City or Mesquite*), or is moving out of the county within 72-hours of being the new owner, then he has no need to register it, nor should he. In any case, there is no provision to be unregistered from the handgun. You will always be in the system as associated with it. Registration is not proof or even probable cause of anything. It can not be used to force compliance with questioning or searching. Anything you choose to volunteer is your choice to do so, if the registration program were to ever generate a lead in a crime. This thread is not the place to advocate nor discourage any such cooperation.
The registration form has several sections. The only sections required are name, address, and weapon information. All other sections are not legally required. How far you choose not to answer the other sections will depend on the mood and training of the person asking you to fill it out at the time.
If you buy from a private party and need to register, you will have to take it to a police station to do so. The ones available to do so are not current with the list on Metro's website. Someone can post a current list soon. The actual ordinance places as much burden on the sheriff to do the registration as it does on the owner to present himself for registration. Legally, you meet your obligation if you present yourself to any sheriff's office at any time to register your firearm. If you are turned away (wrong location, wrong time) that is their problem, not yours. Of course, being able to document this would help, and it will likely NOT result in a pleasant encounter with a policeman asking why your firearm is not in the system after he illegally searches it.
There is no fee for registration. There is no 3rd degree of questioning if you are leery about registering a pistol and don't know its history or have been (for whatever reason) in unregistered possession for longer than the law allows. So even if you "forgot" to get a handgun registered, you do not need to fear doing so.
While not legally authorized to do so, they will conduct a background check on you when you register. They will also do a check of the firearm to see that it is not on a list of stolen guns.
If you are a felon or someone that is not legally authorized to possess firearms, you are exempt from registering any illegally-possessed handguns you may have. This is not a statement of political humor, but one of legal fact. See Haynes v. US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haynes_v._United_States. Obviously, you are still in bigger trouble for the possession, but you can't be convicted for failing to register.
There is no requirement to update the system when information changes. This includes your address and modifications made to the firearm.
If you are registering at a police station, please proofread their work, assuming you care. They are notorious for not knowing much about firearms and for recording the wrong information. I myself am apparently the proud owner of a registered Tokarev in 25mm caliber.
Do not carry the firearm into the police station in a concealed fashion; this includes firearms bags. Believe it or not, you can carry it in your hands, though you should do so with the action open and be carrying it in a fashion so as not to cause alarm.
The blue card itself means nothing. Aside from the advantage in buying another handgun from a shop that requires it for waiting period exemption, it grants you no privileges. You must have a concealed weapons permit (CCW) to carry your handgun concealed on your person. All other possession is legal without paperwork of any kind. This includes open carry and possession of the handgun anywhere (hidden or not) within a vehicle.
The ordinance itself technically only applies to residents of unincorporated Clark County. But the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson have their own ordinances to also require it. They all use the County's system, even though Henderson's laws require it to be done by their own Chief of Police. Henderson is violating their own laws by using the County's program. But de facto, unless you are willing to be the test case, I recommend you just do as they tell you. Practically, if you are a resident of Henderson, you may use any sheriff's office or one of your local police stations. Last I heard, Henderson would not process for a non-resident of their city.
Boulder City has no such city ordinance requiring registration, so if you live in their incorporated city limits, you have no registration requirement. Unfortunately, it seems many of the gun shops are still forcing you to register when you buy from them elsewhere in the county, though, so be prepared for that. I've seen no requirement for Mesquite residents to register, either, but have not yet heard tales of what happens there in real life. (*This explains the asterisk I noted above in the paragraph on selling a registered firearm.)
If you loan a handgun to someone else, there is no need for them to register it to themselves while in possession. There is no need for them to carry your blue card that you may or may not have kept. The pistol is yours, and it is registered to its owner. If you wish, you can coregister from the start with a spouse. I hear that both will receive blue cards. This would eliminate the need for the survivor to register the firearms later after a death.
I'd like to be able to tell you how much this program costs the taxpayers, but the sheriff has refused to respond to this inquiry from the County Commissioners. I'd like to be able to tell you how many crimes have been solved because of this program, but we're still looking for the first one.
While you must be 21 years of age to purchase a handgun from a dealer, that is a restriction on his license. It is not a restriction on you. Any adult can possess a firearm where legal. So any adult (18+) may acquire a handgun by any means other than a licensed dealer and there will be no issue whatsoever with registering it at the sheriff's office.
