Fairfax, VA – Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons today signed into law the National Rifle Association (NRA)-backed “Emergency Powers Firearms Protection Act,” Assembly Bill 95 (AB95). This new law will prevent a governmental entity or law enforcement agency from confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens during a declared state of emergency.
AB95 will protect Nevadans from an event similar to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when residents of New Orleans were subject to door-to-door firearm confiscation at the direction of New Orleans police. “This law guarantees that the Second Amendment rights of all law-abiding Nevadans will never be violated during a time of emergency,” said NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris W. Cox. “The citizens of Nevada can be assured that they and their Constitutional freedoms will not suffer like those citizens of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.”
“NRA promised to fight to ensure that the gun confiscations we saw in New Orleans are never repeated anywhere in America, and we are devoted to fulfilling our vow,” said Cox. The NRA-backed measured received wide bipartisan support in the Nevada Legislature. According to the bill’s sponsor Assemblywoman Valerie Weber (R-5), the Emergency Powers Firearms Protection Act “was a legislative priority for all of the co-sponsors and members to protect Nevada's gun owners.”
AB95 passed unanimously out of Assembly and Senate policy committees and off both floors. Since Hurricane Katrina, state legislatures in Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia passed measures similar to Nevada’s Emergency Powers Protection Act. Last fall, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed a similar federal bill with broad, bipartisan support, which President Bush signed in October 2006.
“I want to thank Governor Gibbons for signing this fundamentally important piece of legislation into law,” said Cox. "I would also like to thank Assemblymembers Valerie Weber, Francis Allen and Garn Mabey for their leadership on this issue, as well as Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick for steering AB95 through the Assembly committee process." -
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Established in 1871, the National Rifle Association is America’s oldest civil rights and sportsmen's group. Four million members strong, NRA continues its mission to uphold Second Amendment rights and advocates enforcement of existing laws against violent offenders to reduce crime. The Association remains the nation's leader in firearm education and training for law-abiding gun owners, law enforcement and the armed services.
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