Concealed carry bill fails in Nebraska Legislature

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A bill that would have relaxed rules on concealed carry in Nebraska continued to spark debate on Monday, as senators took the full four hours to discuss it.

LB 733 was two votes short of the 33 needed to overcome a filibuster.

“The Second Amendment is the only right citizens must ask permission to use,” Sen. Tom Brewer said. “Think about that for a minute. We wouldn’t do that with voting rights.”

In Nebraska, you can already legally open carry, but this bill would have allowed gun owners to conceal carry without a permit.  The bill would still have prohibited people who cannot legally own a gun from carrying a gun.

“In terms of open carry, I think there is a distinct difference, and the difference is this: When someone is open carrying, they are openly and notoriously carrying that, people can see that they are open carrying, they can adjust their conduct and avoid that individual if they so choose accordingly,” Sen. Adam Morfeld said.

But Brewer said open carry doesn’t work for everyone.

“You are putting yourself at risk in open carrying if you are not physically big enough to protect that gun,” he said. “If you are concealed carrying, they do not know it.”

Some senators worried that taking away the training currently needed to obtain a concealed handgun permit is a public safety concern.

But Brewer said people who want to conceal carry will know how to use guns.

“To say that we need millions of dollars from the State of Nebraska to pay to have folks trained because they are so irresponsible that they won’t do any training on their own and still want to carry I think isn’t being accurate or true with people who want to have constitutional carry,” Brewer said.

Sen. Megan Hunt said she was concerned about vigilante justice.

“Historically you know, not all of you have been supporters of that. You didn’t like it when the Black Panthers were doing it, did you?” she said. “So my concern is around who has access to guns, and then who appoints themselves in this position of being a vigilante law enforcement officer, and then the fact that actual trained law enforcement officers are against this whole idea.”

Law enforcement in urban areas of Nebraska is taking a different stance on this situation than those in rural Nebraska.

“I do want to confirm that Lincoln Police Union and Lincoln Police Department are both opposed to this even with the amendment,” said Senator Morfeld.

Brewer said some counties in his district have one police officer or a sheriff’s office with no deputies.

“So we can build all law around those who break the law in Lincoln or Omaha, and that becomes a standard, but that is not reflecting of what our constitution says,” he said.

An amendment that would have carved out an exception for the Omaha area also failed on Monday.

“In a perfect world, no one has a gun. That’s the perfect scenario,” Brewer said. “But that’s not what the Constitution has given us,”

Currently, 24 states across the country have laws similar to the Nebraska bill, which supporters call constitutional carry, including all neighboring states except for Colorado.

“We may not be able to convince folks here, and this bill may die, but I believe there will be new faces next year, and I believe this vote will help us to shape a lot of new faces,” Brewer said. “We are going to reshape this Unicameral, and we will see 773 next year back and become law.”