Bloomberg thought he had it all figured out but the FBI messed up his plot.

At least $20 million was spent by the billionaire through his ant-Second Amendment groups in a grand effort to get Ballot Question 1 passed in Nevada. The proposal would require virtually all private transfers of gun ownership to be contingent on an FBI background check. Election day was a success; the measure passed. Gun grabbers thought they had what they wanted.

It was a happy day until the FBI said they weren’t participating in the program. Too bad, Bloomberg lost the money he put in.

” The expansion of gun background checks approved by Nevada voters last month will not happen as expected, based on an opinion released Wednesday by the Nevada Attorney General’s Office.

Ballot Question 1 requires that private party gun transfers – with a few exceptions – be subject to a federal background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System administered by the FBI.

The FBI sent a letter Dec. 14 to the state of Nevada’s Department of Public Safety saying it would not conduct these checks. The department asked for a legal opinion on the letter’s ramifications.”

It didn’t matter how the vote went, this announcement basically collapsed the entire program. To have the plan in place only works as long as the facilities are available for sellers to acquire the mandated background check. The only possibility provided under the legislation was to have the FBI do it. Unfortunately, the FBI don’t have the resources available to supply to this program so they won’t be playing a part. This leaves a state of affairs where otherwise legal sales couldn’t take place due to reasons beyond the control of the seller. It turns out that the measure is completely unenforceable.

It appears that Bob Owens at Bearing Arms was amused at the ironic breakdown of the battle after it had been won.

“Like good little liberals everywhere, Nevada’s anti-gun Democrats expected someone else (in this case, the federal government in the form of the FBI) to foot the bill for their edict.

The feds have rejected it outright.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt has noted it is entirely unenforceable (PDF).

Mike Bloomberg is out the $20 million or so he spent pushing this faulty referendum into being.”

Too bad a plan cannot be enforced without the participation of all the players required to make it work. The money that Bloomberg put up was wasted. The Democrats are very good at that and Bloomberg is no exception.