Nebraska permitless carry bill would circumvent local gun laws

LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - A bill working through the Nebraska Unicameral could wipe local control of handgun licensing if a permitless conceal carry bill takes hold.

If you want to buy a long gun in Nebraska, the firearms dealer first goes through the FBI database to make sure you don’t have a criminal past that would disqualify you.

But if you want to buy a handgun in Nebraska, you must first get a purchase permit from the sheriff. It’s like a background check.

LB77, also known as “permitless constitutional carry,” passed the first round in the Nebraska Legislature on Friday. It would remove that local control and allow those who can legally buy a handgun also be able to conceal it in public without getting a permit or taking a safety and training class. To be clear, the bill would not impact current federal background checks that are done on handguns purchases.

If approved, the constitutional carry gun bill would do away with Omaha’s gun ordinances, some of which could be considered stronger than those on the federal level.

Douglas County Sheriff’s data from the last three years shows that less than 400 people applying for a handgun permit have been denied in each of the previous two years.

• In 2021, the sheriff issued more than 5,000 handgun purchase permits and denied 373.
• In 2022, nearly 4,500 applied and 398 were denied.
• So far this year, 842 have applied for a handgun purchase permit and 57 of them have been rejected.

The rejections can happen for a number of reasons, from being a felon, getting arrested for domestic violence, having drug convictions — even for lying on the forms.

In just this year alone, there are 20 Douglas County residents who were denied a handgun purchase permit for this reason: having a drug conviction within the last 10 years. That’s an Omaha ordinance that would go away if LB77 goes through.

Experts argue that In many cases, those same individuals would be able to get a handgun permit under federal background checks.

6 News was told that the system gets even harder to navigate when it comes to checking histories of those who have mental health questions.

“That will change if the City of Omaha loses the ability to have local control for gun ordinances,” Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson said. “It’s not for me to decide whether that’s appropriate — I’ll leave it up to the policymakers — but at that point, we’ll be relying on that federal and state prohibitive factors.”

LB77 advanced from the first round of a filibuster on Friday.

Half of the states in the country allows someone who can legally purchase a handgun to also conceal it in public without getting a permit or taking the eight-hour safety class.

It’s not clear when lawmakers will vote on the second round, but the session is a few days shy of its halfway point.

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