General Categories > Carry Issues
open carry almost gone bad in lincoln
D.A.D.:
I guess I'm a little slow, or ignorant, but I had a light come on in my head today. I came to understand that the section of the Nebraska Statutes under which the concealed carry laws are listed is Chapter 69 which is reserved for laws regarding Personal Property. The concealed carry laws are all about personal property not about owning guns.
The laws are not about owning personal property ( I like owning and using guns), but the laws are about where I can take my personal property without violating the personal property of others and of the right they have to control their property. With the first passage of the law in 2006, cities began to say, "not on our property." But state law was changed to say that they could not say that. Now cities cannot ban concealed carry of my property on their property.
Businesses can allow or disallow my personal property on their personal property (inside their buildings, events, or activities), but not their parking lots. If I can't keep my personal property in my personal vehicle while on their personal property, then I can't have my personal property anywhere but on my personal property (at home). Fortunately, the state law was modified to recognize that my vehicle is my personal property and, as long as I stored my firearms securely in my vehicle, the other property owners had to accept that degree of respecting my rights.
The issue now is, employers, at least as they are interpreting the law to fit their bias. Unfortunately, LB 785 or the final reading of LB 430 in 2009 were not advanced as they were presented. If one sentence in 69-2441(2) had not been struck out, this issue would be resolved. It read, "A permitholder carrying a concealed hangun in a vehicle into or onto any place or premises does not violate this section so long as . . . ." it is stored securely in a personal vehicle. This was addressed to employers not being able to bar the storage of handguns in employees personal vehicles. But it was struck from the final law.
So this battle is clearly about property rights. And though the Nebraska State Patrol seems to clear this up in the Nebraska Administrative Code 018.05 and 018.06, it has not been tested in court to see who has final say where the property rights line is drawn. That is why the reintroduction of LB 785 by Sen. Christensen (and maybe other senators), properly worded and passed would clear up this huge grey area without some poor individual CHP holder losing his job and having to fight it out in court.
Sen. Christensen's bill needs to be written to contain all the necessary safeties to allow employers the comfort level (read freedom from civil law suits over damages caused by an employee with a firearm in their vehicle) to allow employees to store firearms in their vehicles in company parking lots. If you have to park in your employer's lot and the employer says "not on my property" then you have to leave your firearm(s) at home on your property unless you have another parking option where it is legal (like on the street).
So, Sen. Christensen, is there anything we can do to help because many of us need the help this sort of bill would provide. When can we start writing to our senators to try to pursuade them that we can be responsible for our own actions and handle our firearms properly when they are on our person or personal property (vehicle) anywhere we go?
D.A.D.
D.A.D.:
Here is an article regarding employees storing firearms in their personal vehicles on company parking lots in Texas. Some of you may have seen this already, but I thought I would put it out there so everybody can see what an issue this is for many firearms owners, CHP or not.
http://www.gunreports.com/news/news/NRA-ILA-Wants-Help-on-Texas-Parking-Lot-Law_4385-1.html?ET=gunreports:e1285:204086a:&st=email
D.A.D.
"Our generation has forgotten that the system of private property is the most important guarantee of freedom." - Friedrich A. Hayek, 1944
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