It seems like he doesn't really care about what his signature means he cares what the media will make his signature look like IF something would ever happen with a NFA item.
Bingo.
Solution: Make the costs (political and public eye) of being not willing to sign, outweigh the incredibly minute risks in signing. Target sheriffs (because they are directly elected) with "covert" letter and email campaigns, indicating you will take steps to challenge their position by supporting and encouraging others to support their opponents in the next election cycle. This is both an attempt to threaten their political position as well as actually convince them to change their minds using classic debate points (noise pollution, second amendment, hearing protection)
Why covert? (without the negative connotation) Because an overt campaign with this motivation will attract backlash from the general public, whose knowledge of suppressors comes from "Boondock Saints" and other such less-than-accurate sources. This campaign would need to be kept in farely closed circles, such as on this forum, at gun shows, and other conducive environments.
So what should be done exactly? Well, here is a rough outline:
1.) Is to form a list of all the Sheriffs in Nebraska, and then sort the list by
"Will they sign off? Yes / No / Sometimes / Maybe / Unkown"
1a.) Publish the list. I would be willing to bet the rest of the board would be more than willing to put such a list on the NFOA site.
2.) Use that list to evaluate one-to-three politically vulnerable sheriffs.
2a.) Do they have an opponent in the upcoming election?
2b.) Would their opponent sign off if he/she were elected?
3.) Launch covert campaign against vulnerable targets. The NFOA and NFOA-PAF has some resources to help out with this, including emails and funding, but the biggest one would be YOU the member.
3a.) Help out their opponents, spread the word amongst gun-friendly folks in the target's area about their position, etc.
3b.) Even if you cannot dislodge the current sheriff, you may get him to feel politically threatened enough to quietly change his policy on NFA sign off.
The million dollar question. The NFOA has limited resources in manpower, being 100% volunteer, so:
Who would be willing to work on step number 1?I, for one, don't have time, and would have severely conflicting interests in this arena, but we could certainly form a committee to coordinate with the BoD and NFOA-PAF to get the ball rolling (assuming they would be on board, but I can't imagine why they wouldn't be)