NEVADA'S BAN ON FIREARMS IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL
July 13, 2010 - For Immediate Release
Contact: William Perry Pendley
DENVER, CO. A University of Idaho law student, who often camps in Nevada, today filed a federal lawsuit in Nevada against various Nevada officials charging that the ban on possession and discharge of a firearm for self-defense in a state park violates the Second Amendment of the Constitution, as applied by the Supreme Court in a ruling last month. Al Baker, a NRA-certified Home Firearms Safety & Basic Pistol Instructor who is licensed in Idaho, Utah, and Oregon to carry a concealed handgun, is also an avid outdoorsmen and camps in northern Nevada, a few hours south of his permanent residence in Boise. One of the camping areas that he has visited in the past and intends to visit in the future is the Wild Horse State Recreation Area in Elko, Nevada, which provides campsites and other primitive amenities and makes an ideal base camp for hunters, hikers, and other outdoor enthusiasts. Mr. Baker has been advised that, if he brings a firearm for personal protection, he will be in violation of state law.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling that the Second Amendment applies to the States via the Fourteenth Amendment makes it clear that the Nevada law is unconstitutional and must be stricken,” said William Perry Pendley, president of Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents Mr. Baker.
The Nevada Division of State Parks prohibits possession of firearms in state parks, with two narrow exceptions—that is, an unloaded firearm inside a vehicle and a concealed handgun carried by a person licensed pursuant to Nevada law—and prohibits the discharge of firearms, with no exception for self-defense.
Nevada’s ban on firearms prohibits Mr. Baker from possessing a functional firearm when he is camping in Nevada State Parks. He must leave his firearm in his car, unloaded at all times, even in the case of a self-defense emergency. If he were to discharge a firearm in self-defense, that action would also violate the ban. The penalty for violating the Nevada firearms ban is 6 months imprisonment, or a $1,000 fine, or both.
On April 12, 2010, Mr. Baker submitted a special use permit application for a group campsite at the Wild Horse State Recreation Area in Elko, Nevada, stating his intent to possess a functional firearm in his tent for self-defense purposes while camping at Wild Horse State Recreation Area. On June 1, 2010, Nevada officials notified Mr. Baker that he would be in violation of Nevada law if he did so.
On June 28, 2010, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States held that “the right to keep and bear arms [are] among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty.”
Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest law firm dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system. Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado.