‘Ghost guns’ on display at the headquarters of the San Francisco Police Department on Nov. 27, 2019. (Photo: Haven Daley/AP, file)
LAS VEGAS — A group of gun-rights activists has sued to challenge a new Nevada law banning build-your-own firearms.
The lawsuit was filed days after Gov. Steve Sisolak signed the ban on so-called "ghost guns" without serial numbers, the Reno Gazette Journal reported Monday.
The Delaware-based Firearms Policy Coalition, which has offices in Nevada, said the new law constitutes a "broad and unconstitutional" violation of the 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
"In order for a law-abiding individual to exercise their Second Amendment rights, they must have the ability to possess firearms, including those they build themselves," Adam Kraut, the senior director of legal operations for the Firearms Policy Coalition said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Nevada, names Gov. Steve Sisolak and Attorney General Aaron Ford as defendants. Messages seeking comment from Sisolak's and Ford's offices were not immediately returned Tuesday.
Federal and local law enforcement officials have warned about loopholes in gun laws that allow people who are generally barred from owning firearms to make them at home, using kits that can be purchased online for a few hundred dollars. The weapons have been found more frequently at crime scenes and have been purchased from gang members by undercover officers.
President Joe Biden has promised to crack down on the homemade firearms. The Justice Department last month released a proposed rule that would require gun-making kits to include a serial number and would require retailers to run background checks before selling some of the kits.
Nevada's law was sponsored by Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, a Democrat who survived the 2017 mass shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. Jauregui has said she is committed to passing gun laws in every legislative session to try to make the state safer.
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