It is not Laxalt's fault the anti-gunners couldn't write an initiative that made sense... 

Via Reno Gazette Journal:

The ill-conceived Question 1 ballot initiative was doomed from the start. That’s because it was poorly written by out-of-state gun control groups that clearly did not understand Nevada's existing firearms background check system. Now those same groups, which are funded by New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, are trying to pin the blame for their $20 million failure on our state attorney general, Adam Laxalt. In what appears to be a coordinated effort to undermine our attorney general and escape responsibility for their own failure, these groups are now pushing attack pieces such as one in the Reno Gazette-Journal earlier this month headlined "NRA behind Laxalt's gun-check opposition?"

The writer of that piece implies that Laxalt, our state's top law enforcement officer, does not care about the safety of the people of Nevada. Having had the privilege of working with Laxalt, I can assure you that our safety is his top priority. But I can't say the same about these heavily funded Bloomberg groups that parachuted into our state last year and tried to impose a gun-control scheme on Nevada without bothering to first understand our laws.

Nevada is one of the country’s 12 "points of contact" states that run their own gun background checks rather than relying solely on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's system. But under the poorly written Question 1 initiative, which passed very narrowly in the fall of 2016, the FBI would be required to conduct the additional background checks. For its part, the FBI was quick to tell the state of Nevada that states "cannot dictate how federal resources are applied."

In short, Attorney General Laxalt does not have the authority to force the FBI to conduct these additional background checks — a reality that ought to have been obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of our system of government. This creates a situation in which the measure, as written, is unenforceable, plain and simple. In drawing that inescapable conclusion, Attorney General Laxalt was doing no more than demonstrating a fidelity to the rule of law.

Read more here.