If you own a gun for self defense, don’t worry.
Although Bellevue’s new firearms ordinance appears to prohibit using a firearm to defend oneself, that right is protected by state law.
While self-defense is not among the few permitted uses of firearms listed in the new ordinance, Deputy City Attorney Tim Buckley said state law always overrides municipal law.
The ordinance — passed on a 4-0 vote Feb. 11 by the City Council — is sweeping and limits the use of firearms within city limits to managed hunts, on-duty law enforcement officers and indoor firing ranges.
Steve Knutson and Don Preister were absent from the council meeting.
Otherwise, the ordinance states: “No person shall discharge or cause to be discharged any toy pistol, toy gun, toy cannon, air gun or other arm or arms, blank cartridge, or slingshot ... at any time or under any circumstances within the city.”
The ordinance also prohibits anyone “except officers of the law in the discharge of their duty” from discharging any firearm in city limits.
But Buckley isn’t pushing the Second Amendment panic button.
The sacrosanct right to self defense, while absent from the ordinance, is protected by Nebraska State Statute 28-1414, he said. The state law asserts that “the use of force upon or toward another person is justifiable when the actor believes that such force is immediately necessary for the purpose of protecting himself.”
Buckley said that is enough to permit a Bellevue homeowner to use a firearm to defend himself, his family or his property.
Those toy guns might be a different matter, though.
“Yes,” Buckley said, “on first reading it, I thought that was going a bit far.”
He said the word “discharged” saves the day for boys shooting their cap guns in imitation of the Lone Ranger. A toy gun that simply makes a loud noise is not discharging anything, he said.
The ordinance is designed to prohibit toy guns that eject, or “discharge,” a projectile that is potentially dangerous. That would include airsoft guns, replica firearms that shoot plastic pellets.
Buckley said the same exemption for cap guns would apply, for example, to track meet officials firing starting guns, since those do not “discharge” a projectile.
The ordinance provides a further exemption for persons hunting deer with a bow and arrow or a crossbow so long as required paperwork is filed with the city clerk.
