RENO, NV -- During the Annual Weatherby Foundation International Hunting and Conservation Awards here in Reno this week, the head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, criticized the president's inaugural address on Gun Control.  And both messages are hitting home here in Northern Nevada. 

“Let me quote the president again,” LaPierre said. “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle. So what is this absolutism the president attacks, and what are the so-called principles that he wants us to settle for instead?”  LaPierre says the president’s remark is intended as an attack on the NRA and gun owners who believe that the Second Amendment to the Constitution provides an absolute right to bear arms.

However Sue Meuschke, with the Nevada Network against Domestic Violence, says the Supreme Court made it clear the government also has the right and responsibility to regulate gun ownership under the constitution.  “I think that a universal check for anyone that wants to purchase a gun is a common sense reasonable approach to this issue,” Meuschke said.

On the other hand, manager of Bizarre Guns, John Clement believes gun control doesn’t work.  Instead, he thinks medical records should be checked for histories of mental deficiency.   “The bad guy is always going to get a gun. He’ll steal yours and use it in a crime,” Clement said. “Who obeys laws? Law abiding citizens who do not commit crimes. Why are we being punished for the acts of people who are mentally deranged?”

The President’s plan includes a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But opponents, led by the NRA, are promising a political fight against any gun control measures that violate the constitutional right to bear arms.