Inside Dope on Nebraska's Constitutional Carry Bill, LB773

 

Due to the energetic efforts of Nebraska State Senator Tom Brewer, Nebraska is getting close to passing LB 773, the Nebraska Constitutional Carry bill in 2022. 

LB 773 has already been pulled (forced out by a vote of the Senate) from the committee, and passed the General File cloture vote with 33 votes, and three more that switched their votes when they saw it was going to pass.

It was a very close thing. In the Nebraska unicameral legislature, each bill has to pass through three votes which may be filibustered. The three votes are in the General File (done), the Select File (pending) and the Final vote (after the Select File).

This correspondent recently talked with Richard Clark, a member of Tom Brewer's staff.

In order to obtain the votes to make it through the Select File closure vote, Senator Brewer has offered up an amendment, AM 2106, to cater to the Omaha Police Officer's Association. The amendment allows Omaha to require registration of handguns to be carried in Omaha, for those who do not have a permit recognized by Nebraska law. Nebraska currently recognizes permits from about 35 states, for people who are 21 years old or older. The amendment requires Omaha to register a handgun from any applicant who is not prohibited from owning a firearm under Nebraska or Federal law. Current law in the city of Omaha is very restrictive. LB 773 and Amendment AM 2106 eliminate about 90 percent of those restrictions, but allows the much truncated registration restrictions to continue.

The bill allows a person to be prosecuted for carrying a concealed weapon, if they do so during while committing 70 listed crimes. There are about 1200 listed crimes in the Nebraska statutes.

LB 773 eliminates all of the local restrictions in the Lincoln, Nebraska, the state capitol. Lincoln has a scheme of regulation similar to Omaha's.  Lincoln is reputed to be the most anti-Second Amendment place in the state. Lincoln has at least a dozen additional categories of prohibited person. Those would be eliminated.

The Speaker of Nebraska's unicameral Senate is Mike Hilgers. He is strongly in favor of LB 773. In 2015 and 2017, Speaker Hilgers pushed for statewide preemption. Both votes failed by 1 vote. Most of his preemption bill is in LB 773.

The Legislature is in its last days of the session. They are dealing with budget matters this week (March 21-25) and will probably deal with LB 773 on the 30th or 31sth of March, 2022. If the bill does not pass, the Speaker wants the votes so Nebraska state Senators can be held accountable.  

Speaker Mike Hilgers is running for Attorney General of Nebraska this year.

One Senator, Justin Wayne, hates the Omaha amendment as does the NRA. He hates the currently restrictive Omaha regulation and registration system.  Senator Wayne, a Democrat, was a supporter of the bill, LB 773. Senator Wayne represents an Omaha District. With the amendment, Senator Wayne withdrew his support. This makes obtaining the 33 votes necessary to pass the bill more difficult. 

Nebraska Governor Ricketts has said he would sign a Constitutional Carry bill.

Nebraska has a reasonably good chance of passing Constitutional Carry, for all of the state, except Omaha, this year. In the process of doing so, statewide preemption will be put into effect, except for the much reduced registration requirement in Omaha. 

The bill would restore a lot of ground for Second Amendment supporters, without giving up anything.

©2022 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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