Attorneys for a group of gun control advocates are appealing a decision by a Clark County judge dismissing their attempt to force the state to implement a voter-approved initiative requiring background checks on most private gun sales or transfers.

A notice filed Wednesday in Clark County District Court states that backers of Question 1, the 2016 ballot measure, plan to appeal Judge Joe Hardy's August ruling that the state could not be forced to implement the initiative, given the FBI's refusal to handle background checks that the initiative said the bureau must carry out.

The news was first reported by the Associated Press.

The appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court promises to extend the legal fight over the ballot question, which Attorney General Adam Laxalt's office said in a 2016 opinion was unenforceable given the FBI's refusal to conduct the background checks.

Although advocates for the ballot measure — which passed by fewer than 10,000 votes in 2016 — said the state should try harder to implement the initiative, Hardy ruled in August that their arguments were "fundamentally flawed" and that the courts could not "micromanage" the governor's ability to implement voter-approved laws.