Legal question on gun registration in NV.

[Ivy Mike]

Here in NV, the only place where gun registration exists is Clark County (which contains Las Vegas)
The law was enacted by the county and only applies to the county. My question is this. Questions of registration being permissible under the 2nd amendment aside, is a county permitted to enact such a law? It would seem that the 10th amendment would leave that to the individual state to decide rather than a lower government.
Nevada already has state preemption but the registration law was grandfathered in.
Is there any legal merit to this or am I getting it all wrong?

and obviously I'm not looking for any legal advice, merely opinions on the law.

 

[Regolith]

There isn't much basis to challenge it under the 2nd Amendment at the moment. If the Supreme Court accepts the Washington DC vs. Heller case, and they rule favorably, we would then have grounds to challenge state registration laws. Then the question will be whether or not the Second Amendment should be incorporated into the 14th Amendment, and whether or not registration is an infringement.

You may be able to challenge it under Article 1, Section 11 of the Nevada State Constitution, which reads

1. Every citizen has the right to keep and bear arms for security and defense, for lawful hunting and recreational use and for other lawful purposes.

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Const/NVConst.html#Art1Sec11

 

[Ivy Mike]

I understand that the 2nd isn't actually much help on the matter right now. The main question was did the county (or any other lower government like Chicago or NYC) have standing to create such a law seeing as firearm regulations would be a power that belong to the state government.

 

[Regolith]

According to current Nevada law, no. A county would not have standing to create such a law, because the state legislation passed a law preempting local gun control ordinances.

But as you mentioned, there wasn't any state preemption laws on the books when Clark County enacted its handgun registration laws, and the preemption law passed by the state legislature allowed Clark's registration scheme to be grandfathered. So, at the time those laws were created the counties did have standing to enact them.

 

[Ivy Mike]

They had standing to enact them even though the 10th would clearly show this to be in the purview of state governments? Can the state give that authority to the lesser governments in its borders?
I guess it really doesn't matter as the 2nd isn't incorporated.

 

[wuluf]

I'm not a lawyer,

but why would registration be in violation of a right to bear arms? They're not preventing you from ownership, just want it registered. I hate the idea (as i live in CA) but i'm not sure it's against the state constitution.

 

[Regolith]

but why would registration be in violation of a right to bear arms? They're not preventing you from ownership, just want it registered. I hate the idea (as i live in CA) but i'm not sure it's against the state constitution.

Would it then be legal for the government to require you to register in order to speak in public or to buy a book or own a computer capable of connecting to the internet? No, because mandatory registration of a right allows them to target individuals who choose to use those rights, and it gives them a measure of control over them that they wouldn't normally have.