Nebraska Lawmakers Pass Constitutional Carry Bill, Heads to Gov’s Desk

Yesterday, the Nebraska Legislature passed Legislative Bill 77 (LB77) with a 33-14 vote. The bill now heads to Governor Pillen’s office for his signature. Pillen, the Republican Governor, intends to sign the bill, which would make Nebraska the 27th state in the country, to codify a form of constitutional or permitless firearm carry.

Nebraska Legislative Bill 77 Passes—

As usual, the anti-freedom/anti-gun groups claim constitutional carry law makes communities unsafe because of GuN VIoleNcE. ABC Nebraska News 8 included this statement from the Lincoln Police Department:

“The chief is disappointed in the legislature’s decision because the most important factor in making these decisions should be public safety and the men and women who serve our community.”

State Senator Tom Brewer, who introduced the bill disagrees. ABC 8 reports that Brewer said:

“What we do in this body sometimes is trying to follow through with the will of the people and give them the rights that they have in the Constitution,” Brewer said. “And sometimes we go out of the way and twist those rights and keep people from having them, and I think (the concealed carry permit) is a case of that.”

The Included Amendment—

Not every law enforcement agency in the state sees it the same way. According to Brewer, reported on YorkNewsTimes, an included amendment “swayed the opinion of several law enforcement organizations. He said the amendment gained the support of the Nebraska Sheriffs’ Association and the Police Officers’ Association of Nebraska, and changed the Omaha police union’s position to neutral on the bill“.

The amendment would add a misdemeanor charge to someone who commits certain “dangerous misdemeanors,” which include domestic assault, shoplifting or stalking.

Additionally, the amendment makes it a felony, if on the third offense, an individual fails to follow Nebraska’s duty to notify law, which requires someone stopped by law enforcement to notify the officer if he is carrying a firearm.

The bill doesn’t do away with the current permitting system, and while I’m not a fan of duty to notify law, LB77 is not a complete disaster. The bill includes important preemption law, which keeps individual jurisdictions from passing laws more restrictive than state law. Without these laws, an individual faces a nearly impossible task of knowing various regional gun laws and exact governmental boundaries.

To read the entire bill, follow this link.

If you want to keep up to date with important changes to gun laws, or quickly reference gun laws in states you’re traveling through, check out our Concealed Carry Gun Tools App. Not only do you have relevant state gun law, but the app provides a customizable reciprocity map, lists of gun free zones and businesses, a training database, all our written content and more. Best of all, it’s completely free. Download it here.

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