Need legislation to allow carry on university campuses

[rudy]

I realize that there hasn't been a post in this thread for some time, but has any progress been made?

I'm a graduate student at UNL and have a MN permit to carry, which is recognized by NE.  It would be nice if my permit were valid on campus.  As an aside, MN's law allows carry on campus, but the university has the power to expel students or fire faculty/staff if found carrying.

[Pixtaker]

I would be completely opposed to a bill like this, and in fact would fight it with a passion. 

I am opposed to the current Government-issued "permit" to exercise my Constitutional Right to begin with, and you want to create even MORE RESTRICTIONS on that right?   

It may not be very popular with the CCW Permit instructor members of the NFOA, but the NFOA should be working towards Constitutional(permit-less) Carry, not more restrictions added onto the current mess of laws that exist.

+1

The Second Amendment is perfectly clear that citizens have the right to keep and BEAR arms and that right shall not be infringed upon.  I spent $150 to take a class and $100 application fee (not to mention full fingerprints and background checks) simply for the privilege to exercise my RIGHT as an American. 

If I am not prohibited from owning a gun by law I should not be restricted in where or how I may carry.

[OnTheFly]

+1

The Second Amendment is perfectly clear that citizens have the right to keep and BEAR arms and that right shall not be infringed upon.  I spent $150 to take a class and $100 application fee (not to mention full fingerprints and background checks) simply for the privilege to exercise my RIGHT as an American. 

If I am not prohibited from owning a gun by law I should not be restricted in where or how I may carry.

Pixtaker,

I think that many on this forum and in the gun community would agree with you.  We ALWAYS want to be working towards less restrictions, but there is "what should be" and "what is possible". 

I was not around from the beginning, and those folks who put in all the hard work to get CCW passed (such as AAllen and others that co-founded the NFOA) can fill you in on how it all progressed.  Such legislation was probably an easy step (compared to other options) that could be taken to recognize/exercise our rights that would have otherwise required a much more expensive battle in a higher court.

At this point, we have a foot in the door.  Not until we have a history of demonstrating that concealed carry by law abiding citizens is not a threat to society, and the criminals continue to demonstrate that they will CC regardless of the requirement for a permit, will we be able to take the next step towards securing our rights without limitations.

Baby steps...baby steps.

Fly

[cckyle]

I think that many on this forum and in the gun community would agree with you.  We ALWAYS want to be working towards less restrictions, but there is "what should be" and "what is possible". 

Before I took a CCW class and gone through it all, I too thought to myself, "why should I have to go through all of this."  Today however I have a different view on it.  Although it may not be/have been justified or right, I think there was likely a legitimate reason why carrying a concealed weapon was made illegal in the first place.  I think had we not had a CCW option put in place as we do, and simply made it legal to carry a concealed weapon; we would likely have that right once again taken away by now.  As we know gang members and criminals are unlikely to obtain a CHP before carrying a concealed weapon.  So in most instance/if not all instances when a concealed weapon is used in a crime they(media/legislators/anti-gun), can't blame this on us law abiding CHP holders.  You know they would be too. 

It's a happy medium IMO.   Requiring the class does two things.  First of all it educates people who would not otherwise research and understand important laws to know before carrying independently.  Secondly it helps to "weed" out criminals and those who are not serious about carrying a concealed handgun for self defense from being lumped in with us as law abiding CHP holders in the news/media.  It helps protect our right to carry concealed as CHP holders from those legislators and anti-gun groups that want to take that right away. 

In today's world we can't ignore the fact that there will always be legislators/those in office and anti-gun groups working to reduce our rights.  If we were to go permit-less today, all the shootings and crimes committed w/ a firearm would be ammunition(no pun intended) for these people to take our right to conceal carry away; and they would once again take it away.  I think our current system has proven to do a great job at taking away any ground these anti-gun folks have at reducing our rights away from us as CHP holders.  They just are not able to look at the news/media and say, "see, these CCW laws were bad, look at all the trouble this has cause."  Granted I don't agree with every aspect of our current system, but it has worked for us.  I also consider the time and money I spent to obtain a CHP as well spent.   

I know there are a lot of you on this forum,  and I don't think I have ever said this on here, but thank you to those of you who fought for the current CCW laws/rights we have today in Nebraska.  To think you all are responsible for me having the ability to protect myself/family should a life/death situation ever occur is truly astonishing.  Thank You!!!!

[Dan W]

It is true that attempts to pass Vermont style CCW in Nebraska were introduced every session for many many years along side the attempts to pass a permit system.

There was an amendment to the state constitution that I hold gave us the protections necessary to carry concealed without a permit, but the state supreme court soon ruled that it did not. ( I do not have the case citation that made this ruling ) Maybe someone can remind us of the facts and issues in that case

But my point is until we passed the current concealed handgun act, carrying concealed was still considered a crime unless one could successfully argue in court, after your arrest and jailing, that you had a very good reason to be carrying a handgun at the time and get the judge to agree that your reason was acceptable.

This was not an inexpensive case to make, possible loss of job from time in jail, likely charged and convicted of a crime, possible loss of gun rights if convicted, not to mention the cost of your defense.

And frankly our efforts to get a permitless system started were getting frustrating and increasingly fruitless.

So the dreaded "compromise" of our constitutional right began and Nebraskans eventually  successfully passed a bill that allows for a permit system. One, that I might add, extended the right to carry concealed into other states. That was a big plus in my mind

Now, with a working system in place, I and others in the NFOA are working to add back the losses that were compromised away to get our foot in the door. We have been very successful in a few short years, all using volunteer grassroots efforts with limited fund raising.

At this time I think we have a pretty decent system...cost of training and permit is around $250 for five years, $300 for ten years if you renew as required... that is $30 bucks a year. Not bad compared to the expense of defending one's self against a charge of illegal concealed carry of a handgun.

Are we moving fast enough to satisfy strict constitutionalists that insist on immediate full restoration of our state and federal 2nd amendment rights...No

But I can tell you my all or nothing type of thinking has definitely been altered by the last 10 years of work on this issue, and I think it has made me a much more effective freedom fighter.

So all I ask is that we hang together and keep working as hard as we can to move the Nebraska laws back to where they belong.

[rudy]

I guess I should've been more specific.  Has any progress been made towards allowing concealed carry on campus?  Is there anything that I can do?  Write to legislators, etc.?

[AAllen]

Rudy athis moment the best thing you can do is vote, and vote for Senators that will support your rights.  Want to help develop Senators that will do that, check out the NFOA-PAF we are really just getting started but it is already having an effect.  Then of course there is the ultimate, be certain to help the Legislative Candidates that support you, it does not require a lot of money they need people to help walk neighborhoods, put out yard signs, make a few phone calls.  If you can give one evening or a couple of hours on a weekend they would appreciate your assistance, and understand how important your rights are and that they need to support them.

[JimP]

As someone who lives in his district, I did communicate my concerns about the manner in which this was passed.  His response:  "We needed to get this passed."

In one of the Judiciary Hearings I attended (after the Westroads shooting, IIRC), Ashford asked the question, "What, do you propose we do nothing?  We MUST do SOMETHING."  His proposal was to form a blue-ribbon commission to make and biannually update a list of guns "Too dangerous for civilian ownership.", and ban them. He worked a backroom deal with the NRA to get them to be "Nuetral" on this in exchange for getting rid of the Firearm Purchase Permit.  Only quick action by Nebraska gun rights groups, including this one, got this stopped.

This is the mark of a Progressive: the idea that the answer to everything is more Government.

For the record, Bill Kintner's District 2 opponent, Paul Lambert of Plattsmouth, is of this ilk.