letter to the Nevada AG

Catherine Cortez Masto, Attorney General, Nevada
555 E. Washington Avenue, Suite #3900
Las Vegas, NV 89101

Madam Attorney General,

I am writing you today to express my sincere displeasure regarding the prohibition of firearms in Clark County parks. Clark County code 19.04.060 was enacted to give the Commissioner the authority to establish and post rules of conduct within county parks. The Parks and Recreation Director somehow believes that this gives him carte blanch to prohibit firearms in county parks. He is mistaken, let me explain why.

NRS 268.418 section 1 reads:

“Except as otherwise provided by specific statute, the Legislature reserves for itself such rights and powers as are necessary to regulate the transfer, sale, purchase, possession, ownership, transportation, registration and licensing of firearms and ammunition in Nevada, and no city may infringe upon those rights and powers. As used in this subsection, “firearm” means any weapon from which a projectile is discharged by means of an explosive, spring, gas, air or other force.”

There is no specific statute that gives any county, city or municipality or subdivision thereof the authority to restrict or prohibit the possession of firearms. While Clark County code allows the county to post rules regulating conduct, it does not give the county the power to regulate the possession of firearms. Once the posted rules prohibited firearms the county code crosses the line established by NRS 268.418.

Parks and recreation facilities owned by the county are paid for with public funds. Those funds come from firearm owners and non firearms owners alike. Because these are public facilities, and in light of NRS 268.418 as well as the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is therefore unreasonable and unlawful to exclude firearms owners from using county park facilities while exercising their right to bear arms.

It is my understanding that a request has been made for you to issue an opinion on this matter and that opinion has been forthcoming for an unreasonably long period of time. This unlawful prohibition is a liability to the state that Nevada cannot afford in this troubling financial time. Please understand that those of us in the community who exercise our right to bear arms daily are prepared to be arrested and charged with a crime in an effort to force the justice system to take notice of this unlawful prohibition. I sincerely hope you will not allow it to come to that as you have the power to correct this. Right now, our County Commissioner, the District Attorney as well as the Clark County Park Police are thumbing their nose at the legislature, the office of the Attorney General and the People of Nevada. It is your job to make sure that our justice system operates within the boundaries of the law and as a law abiding, taxpaying citizen and resident of Nevada; I demand that you do just that.

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Nevada carrier said:

I truncated this to avoid revealing personal information, the attachment is the response I received.

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