The Nebraska Legislature is considering a firearms preemption law this year for the second time.
LB 68, Introduced by Senator Mike Hilgers, is similar to a bill that was one vote short of passing the floor vote last year. We tried but were unsuccessful in reaching Senator Hilgers.
Amanda Gailey, founder of Nebraskans against Gun Violence, says firearms preemption laws, which currently exist in 43 states, prohibit towns, cities and villages from passing ordinances related to firearms ownership and carrying.
“It also automatically voids all of the statutes that are already on the books. This law would, in one pass, obliterate all the work that people have democratically performed in their own communities over the years. It kind of defies common sense that we are supposed to have the same gun laws in a densely populated urban area that somebody might feel that they need working on a ranch.”
Gailey says this would be a dramatic change for Nebraska, especially areas like Omaha and Lincoln, which each have several such ordinances. For example, she says Omaha allows handgun registration at age 21, whereas the state age is 18; and Lincoln has ordinances that prohibit gun ownership to anyone who has been convicted of stalking or of impersonating a police officer.
Dennis Sexton, Treasurer of the Omaha Police Officers Association, says they oppose this bill because of the vast differences between Nebraska’s urban and rural communities. He says taking away Omaha’s gun crime laws could be dangerous to both citizens and police officers.
Listen tomorrow when a representative from the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association talks about why they support this bill.
For more information, see Nebraskalegislature.gov