{"id":90546,"date":"2023-03-06T14:30:03","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=90546"},"modified":"2023-03-06T14:30:03","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T20:30:03","slug":"90546","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=90546","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

No-permit concealed carry advances in Nebraska Legislature<\/a><\/p>\n

After years of trying to pass a bill to allow people to carry concealed guns\u00a0in Nebraska<\/a>\u00a0without a permit, conservative lawmakers are on the cusp of doing so, thanks in part to the defection of two Democratic Omaha senators \u2014 the only Black lawmakers in the body \u2014 who cited racial disparity in enforcing gun laws in their districts.<\/p>\n

After three days of debate, lawmakers voted 36-12 Friday to advance the bill. It must survive two more rounds of debate to pass.<\/p>\n

While the bill would not usurp the federal requirement for a background check to buy a gun, it would allow people to carry guns hidden in their clothing or vehicle without having to pay for a government permit or take a now-required gun safety course. It also would override stricter gun laws in the state\u2019s cities, including in the state\u2019s largest city of Omaha, which requires a conceal carry license for anyone carrying a gun in a car \u2014 even if the gun is in open view.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that Omaha law that spurred Omaha Sens. Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney to break party ranks and support the bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many young African American and Latino kinds are affected by Omaha\u2019s gun laws?\u201d asked Wayne on the Senate floor. Young Black people in Omaha are often charged with\u00a0gun possession violations<\/a>\u00a0when a gun that\u2019s not theirs is found in a car they\u2019re riding in, Wayne said.<\/p>\n

The practice, known in law enforcement circles as \u201cbumping up,\u201d disproportionally affects people of color, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re talking about bumping up kids in Omaha, they\u2019re not talking about kids in Bennington,\u201d Wayne said, referring to the overwhelmingly white bedroom community north of Omaha. \u201cThey\u2019re not talking about kids in western Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKinney said the creation of early gun control laws in the U.S. \u201cwas out of fear of Black people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here and not try to fight for my community,\u201d he said. \u201cThe police don\u2019t care about Black people.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon \u2014 the bill\u2019s conservative sponsor who has tried since 2017 to pass it \u2014 backed McKinney\u2019s comments, citing colonial American laws that criminalized arming Native Americans. Brewer is an Oglala Lakota Tribe member and Nebraska\u2019s only Native American lawmaker.<\/p>\n

Currently, 25 other states have so-called constitutional carry laws that allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit. Last month, the Republican-controlled South Carolina House voted to pass that state\u2019s own constitutional carry bill.<\/p>\n

The Nebraska bill is opposed by the cities of Omaha and Lincoln, where the majority of gun violence occurs, and their police chiefs, who have said the measure will make their cities less safe.<\/p>\n

Nebraska already allows gun owners to carry firearms in public view, as long as they don\u2019t have a criminal record that bars them from possessing one and aren\u2019t in a place \u2014 including churches, courthouses and private businesses \u2014 where guns are prohibited. To legally conceal the gun, Nebraskans are required to submit to a\u00a0Nebraska State Patrol<\/a>\u00a0background check, get fingerprinted and take a gun safety course at their own expense.<\/p>\n

Most bills need 33 votes to pass in Nebraska\u2019s unique one-house Legislature. There are currently 17 Democratic lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan body \u2014 enough to successfully filibuster most bills if they all vote together.<\/p>\n

But two other Democrats joined Wayne and McKinney in voting for the permitless conceal carry bill, including Omaha Sen. Mike McDonnell, a former Omaha firefighter union president who switched to support the measure after the Omaha police union pulled its objection to the bill. Democratic Sen. Lynne Walz, of Fremont, abstained from voting.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Republican Gov. Jim Pillen\u2019s office said Friday that the governor supports the bill and would sign it into law if it passes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No-permit concealed carry advances in Nebraska Legislature After years of trying to pass a bill to allow people to carry concealed guns\u00a0in Nebraska\u00a0without a permit, conservative lawmakers are on the cusp of doing so, thanks in part to the defection of two Democratic Omaha senators \u2014 the only Black lawmakers in the body \u2014 who … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=90546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90547,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90546\/revisions\/90547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=90546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=90546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=90546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}