By Heidi Gansert

Earlier this session, Nevada expanded background checks on gun purchases. I voted against the measure because it didn't consider the needs of our very rural state where gun ownership is part of the fabric of everyday life, and it criminalized transfers between some family members. That said, we all agree that when a background check is run, the information assessed must be complete and accessible. That's why I sponsored SB265 to create a check on the process used to transmit and upload criminal records.

All Nevadans want safe and secure communities. Of the gun bills contemplated during our current legislative session, most won't keep weapons out of the hands of those who can't have them according to current Nevada law.

Did you know Nevada statute prohibits the purchase and/or possession of firearms by people who:

•     have an adjudication of mentally ill or commitment to a mental health facility,
•     have a misdemeanor conviction of domestic violence,
•     have a felony conviction (without a pardon) from any state or United States jurisdiction, or
•     are an adverse party to an extended order for protection?

Most people don't, and these provisions serve to better protect us.

The sad reality is that background checks cannot be effective if information that prohibits the purchase or possession of a firearm is not uploaded into the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History (Nevada's Repository) and the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).

As far back as December 2014, it was found that only one-third of the state's 78 courts had been consistently transmitting these statutorily required records to Nevada's Repository and nearly 900,000 records had not been uploaded into the systems. In response, the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee authorized 10 additional employees and 10 contract employees to work on the backlog of records that needed to be entered into the databases by Nevada's Department of Public Safety (DPS).

When SB265 was recently heard, we discovered that while DPS had eliminated their backlog from 2014, the courts did not know whether all statutorily required information necessary for meaningful background checks was being transmitted. In 2014, only one-third of the courts consistently transmitted the pertinent information.

SB265 requires DPS to reach out to every court to ensure all records related to mental health adjudications, domestic violence convictions, felonies and more, are transmitted and uploaded. It does not expand the grounds prohibiting an individual from buying or possessing a weapon, but it does place a needed check on the system to ensure information is flowing to the right places for effective background checks.

I'm grateful members of both legislative houses and political parties signed onto my bill.  Now is the time to pass this important, bipartisan legislation to help make our communities safer.

Heidi Gansert is a Republican state senator from Washoe County. She formerly served as Gov. Brian Sandoval's chief of staff and as the Republican leader of the Assembly.