LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Gun rights advocates spoke Wednesday against proposed legislation meant to keep weapons away from people experiencing a mental health crisis.
It's a murky area of Nevada law that even makes some police officers uncomfortable. The situation can come up when a person is threatening suicide. That's not a crime, and so police don't do the same things they do when a person is being placed under arrest.
Senate Bill 347 (SB347) would allow police to confiscate guns from people who could be a threat to themselves or family members. Police could hold the firearm for up to 30 days. The bill is sponsored by Democratic Sen. Melanie Scheible, who represents District 9 in the southwest Las Vegas valley.
"A mental health crisis hold comes at kind of this intersection," Scheible said. "The person's not being arrested, so they are not losing the same constitutional rights that they would lose if they were going to be incarcerated. And so, a law enforcement officer does not have the same ability to simply remove a firearm the way they would if someone was being arrested."
SB347 would also set requirements for how the person gets a gun back after police take it away. Scheible and John Abel of the Las Vegas Police Protective Association presented the bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, and indicated they are willing to work with others to get those procedures right.
But any changes are unlikely to satisfy the National Rifle Association or the Independent American Party. Both were among the bill's opponents. The Nevada state director for the NRA, Keely Hopkins, said the bill violates due process, allowing seizure of a weapon without a conviction, an actual finding of mental illness, without even a hearing. She called it a "very weak evidentiary standard."
"Listen, most cops like myself believe the Second Amendment," Abel said. "We don't want to infringe upon those rights, but we also want to make sure that the person in the mental health crisis and their families are protected until such time that person is well enough to own their firearm."
Abel said the bill actually grew out of police officers' concerns over the rights of people in "Legal 2000" — the term often given for a mental health crisis hold.
"We've had officers who respond to these mental health crises where somebody has threatened suicide. We're able to luckily get them out and get them to the hospital where they go, and then we're left with having to confiscate this firearm for safekeeping," Abel said.
"And a lot of officers have called us and said, 'We're not comfortable. We feel like it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment.' That's literally where this bill came from," Abel said.
When someone is arrested, police need a warrant to take property. The Fourth Amendment provides protections in such cases. Confiscating a weapon when there's not even a criminal charge is a gap in Nevada law that SB347 seeks to fill.
Modifications are likely ahead as the bill's sponsors work with the Clark County Public Defender's Office and others to craft language that might satisfy some who currently oppose SB347.