Carrying your blue cards - what does the law say?

We always hear how you must have your blue card (Clark county registration) with you at all times when carrying. Even the Clark county sheriff's web site says so.

I've searched County ordinances top to bottom and I can not find any ordinance that requires you to have the registration card with you when in possession of the weapon. The only reference I can find is that the weapon must be registered, but no mention requiring you to carry proof of that registration.

I emailed the sheriff via the website asking for the ordinance that requires the proof of registration (blue card) to be carried, and I was directed to contact the Firearms Detail.

When I contacted the Firearms detail and asked if I was required to have the blue card with me, I was of course told "Yes, you must carry the blue card whenever you have the weapon". I then asked them for the ordinance that states I must have proof of registration with me and what the penalty was for not having it, and they were unable to tell me.

Of course carrying the blue card is the easy solution, but I would like to know exactly what law requires it, and what the penalty is for not having it.

For example, not having your CCW with you while carrying concealed is clearly defined in NRS as a $25 fine and nothing more. I sure would like to know what the law is should I happen to leave the house with the wrong blue card one day.

I've only been stopped while carrying one time, and even though I had the blue card with me, the officer still took the time to run the serial numbers on the gun. To me, the requirement to have the blue card with you at all times appears to be something created by the sheriff's office, and not actually a legal requirement.

Does anyone have any more information that I might be missing?

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That's a good point. I don't know where you could find that information if they were unable to give it to you. I'll dig around and let you know if I can find anything.

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I spent today making some more phone calls on this issue, one of those calls was to firearms registration.

At first, I was given the standard "you must have the card with you" line, but after asking for more information regarding what county or state ordinance required proof of registration to be carried, the person put me on hold for an extended period to go ask around the office and then came back on the line and stated that there is no law requiring proof of registration to be carried.

The person I spoke with was very professional, and very polite. But they did inform me that if you do not have the registration card with you the officer may confiscate the weapon. I didn't question this as the person I was speaking with is obviously not in a position to make department policy. But her statement did make me wonder. Wouldn't confiscating a legally possessed weapon constitute a violation of unlawful seizure?

I was then directed to contact the public information office. Again they were very polite, but of no further help.

I think my next step will be an attempt to schedule a meeting with the Sheriff. I've never done something like this in the past, so I have no idea if my requests will fall on deaf ears.

I'm trying to go about this in a professional and polite manner to get this matter clarified, so I'm not sure how much pressing will have to be done in order to get to the bottom of it.

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h2ojunkie said:

I spoke with the Sgt. at the firearms detail today (I must have spoke with a Lt. last time because this person was not the same one I spoke with last week).

Anyway, he was very helpful and as I suspected he did confirm there is no legal requirement to carry the registration card, and there is no penalty for not having the card as long as the weapon is registered. However, he did state they recommend carrying the registration card as it speeds up the process of verifying the weapons registration (makes sense to me).

He agreed to have the lvmpd website updated to correct the misinformation.

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