Omaha Sued Over Gun Law

[DanClrk51]

Omaha Sued Over Gun Law

Reporter: Associated Press
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

A Mexican national and two gun-rights organizations have sued the city of Omaha over its ordinance prohibiting legal resident immigrants who are not U.S. citizens from possessing handguns.

Armando Pliego Gonzalez, of Omaha, the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association and the Second Amendment Foundation filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Nebraska's U.S. District Court. The lawsuit says Gonzalez was denied a permit to register a handgun by the Omaha Police Department because he is not a U.S. citizen, in accordance with the Omaha ordinance.

The lawsuit asks a judge to declare the citizenship requirement unconstitutional. The lawsuit says Gonzalez was given permanent resident alien status in 2008, more than seven years after legally moving to the U.S.

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/Omaha_Sued_Over_Gun_Law_130664328.html

You should find my comments under the alias of "Daniel" provided they do not delete my posts.


....Here's the Omaha World Herald article:

Immigrant, groups sue over handgun
By Jason Kuiper
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A pair of gun rights groups and a north Omaha man have filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Omaha's ban against non-U.S. citizens registering handguns with the Police Department.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nebraska by the Washington-based Second Amendment Foundation, the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association and Armando Pliego Gonzalez.

The listed defendants are the City of Omaha, Mayor Jim Suttle and Police Chief Alex Hayes.

Gonzalez, who lived in Mexico before coming to Omaha in 1999, became a permanent resident in October 2008 and works in construction.

The lawsuit says that Gonzalez was the victim of a home invasion in 2010 and that the city's prohibition on noncitizens registering handguns limits his ability to protect himself and his family.

Gonzalez went to the Police Department in June to register a firearm he had legally purchased. He was denied the registration because he is not a U.S. citizen.

The lawsuit questions whether the city's ordinance requiring citizenship is unconstitutional and seeks injunctions against enforcing the measure.

Michelle Peters, assistant city attorney, said neither she nor Hayes had seen the lawsuit. Both declined to comment.

"The City of Omaha cannot, under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, deny a legal permanent resident alien his fundamental Second Amendment rights," the Nebraska firearms owners group's president, Andy Allen, said in a statement.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110928/NEWS97/709289916#immigrant-groups-sue-over-handgun

[Kendahl]

Kudos to the NFOA and SAF as well as to Armando Gonzalez for filing this suit. I hope you prevail.

In reading the comments on WOWT's web site, I was appalled by the many references to illegal aliens and requiring citizenship to possess a handgun. These fools know nothing of gun law and can't even read. What's really scary is that they can vote. Too bad it's unconstitutional to require them to pass the same civics test given to immigrants when they apply for citizenship.

[DanClrk51]

Yes I too have been reading all the comments and it amazes me how many people keep insisting that he's an illegal alien and that he needs to be deported along with requiring citizenship for gun ownership. These people are ignorant and uneducated. They know nothing of the state and federal constitutions as well as state and federal laws. To top it off their pride has gotten the better of them to the point where they would deny freedom to some yet reserve the same for themselves. I don't see much difference between this and the issue of slavery and how that was tolerated yet at the same time proclaiming to be a beacon of freedom. Nothing infuriates me more than people who would deny other human beings basic human rights such as self defense in this case.