Clark County’s 67-year-old gun registration system is history

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo this week announced the end to one of the longest running gun registration schemes in the country (Photo: Las Vegas Review Journal)

Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo issued a directive to his department this week ending the long-standing handgun registration requirement effective immediately.

Although as of Thursday morning, the Las Vegas Metro Police Department still has their registration website online, a simple directive issued by Lombardo Tuesday ended the program.

“The State of Nevada has passed new laws which render null and void local ordinances/codes regulating the transfer, sale, possession, ownership, transportation, registration and licensing of firearms and ammunition,” reads the notice. “Therefore, effective immediately the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will no longer enforce local ordinances/codes regarding handgun registration.

“Additionally, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will no longer register handguns.”

Implemented in 1948, when the area was frequented by notorious East Coast mobsters such as Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky, Clark County’s mandatory handgun registry survived a 1989 preemption law by being grandfathered, effectively making it the only place in Nevada that requires gun registration.

However, with the federal instant checks applied to gun store purchases in the state for over two decades, many felt the registry was outdated.

“I believe that it’s a redundant system,” Lombardo told media last fall while he was a candidate for his current office.

Lawmakers agreed and gave bipartisan support to a gun reform bill last month that included striking the so-called blue card system from the books.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) signed the measure into law last week.

This is not the first vintage handgun registration to go the way of the dinosaurs in recent months.

Last summer Durham County, North Carolina’s 1935 Jim Crow-era scheme was scuttled by the state House by unanimous vote.

While the records in that jurisdiction were eventually destroyed, Lombardo has not announced plans for what happens next to the county’s estimated one million registration cards on file.

Guns.com has reached out to his office for clarification as to the ultimate fate of the records.