DENVER — Any time there is a large-scale mass shooting, questions are asked regarding gun laws.
It turns out Nevada and Colorado have similar rankings by gun control advocates.
According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, its scorecard gives Colorado a C and Nevada a C-minus.
Both states allow assault rifle purchases, do not restrict how many guns can be bought at once and do not ban bump stock devices aimed at enhancing semiautomatic weapons to fire faster
“With both Colorado and American gun laws, there are slight modifications that can be made to a gun that can make a gun that would otherwise be illegal, legal,” said Jordan Hill, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies mass shootings said.
There are some difference.
Denver as a city bans assault rifles. Background checks are required, but they are not enforced in Nevada. And large-capacity magazine sales are outlawed there.
It remains unclear if a machine gun was used by the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre.
Federal law has banned them since 1986, but guns purchased before then are able to be acquired with valid permits in Colorado and Nevada.