“Omaha police said in the six weeks since Nebraska’s constitutional carry law took effect they’ve arrested several people for failing to tell police they have a gun on them when they’re contacted,” ABC’s KETV 7 reported Wednesday. “[A]ccording to law enforcement booking information, at least one person has been charged with ‘failure to disclose’ a concealed weapon every day in the last week.”
“It’s a misdemeanor for the first offense, an elevated misdemeanor for the second offense, and a felony for any additional offense,” the report elaborates.
“You have the right to carry the gun on you. But you also need to let law enforcement know, for their protection, everything else, so that that you have the firearm on you,” Capt. Keith Williamson of the Omaha Police Department gang unit asserted. He added that additional charges can be “tacked on with other serious charges” to offenses like gang crimes and that the bill forcing the city “to repeal some ordinances around firearms … made it more difficult trying to track guns in the wrong hands.”
Permitless carry, requiring self-reporting to armed enforcers, hardly conforms with the Framers’ “shall not be infringed” intent and does nothing to authorize the commission of crimes, just as freedom of speech does not give a pass on fraud, libel, threats, and the like. If by “wrong hands,” Williamson means “prohibited persons,” another classification with no comparable Founding Era model, the carry law specifically excludes them.
“The new law will not change who is allowed to purchase firearms in Nebraska,” the Omaha World-Herald explains. “An amendment folded into LB 77 added an extra misdemeanor charge if someone carries a firearm while committing certain ‘dangerous misdemeanors,’ including domestic assault, shoplifting or stalking.”
But true to prohibitionist form, “Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert …
issued an executive order banning firearms on city-owned properties.” While the position is officially nonpartisan, it’s interesting to note that Stothert is one of those “moderate” Republicans who take the fire out of the bellies of gun owners looking for alternatives to gun-grabbing Democrats.
In her case, her husband’s 2021 suicide “from a self-inflicted gunshot wound” merits our sympathy, but not to the extent that using her political power to mandate life-endangering infringements should be tolerated.
Just as Stothert’s gun ban would not have affected her husband’s choices in any way, neither would a requirement that gun owners inform the police that they are armed alter the behavior of the gang members who couldn’t/wouldn’t have applied for permits in any case.
In the case of criminals, requiring them to admit they are illegally carrying would be a violation of the Fifth Amendment, as ruled by the Supreme Court in Haynes v. United States, which properly reasoned requiring a prohibited person to register a firearm would violate his right not to incriminate himself.
Once again, “gun control” only “works” on the “law-abiding.” It’s shameful that most “mainstream media” readers will never know any of this, and that’s the way those who would rule want it. And in this case, Nebraska’s “Turn Yourself In” diktat further endangers citizens’ rights.
To see how, set aside time to watch two videos that I consider essential for gun owners. The first is “Don’t Talk to the Police” by Regent University School of Law professor James Duane, wherein he explains how even seemingly innocent questions can be a trap and seemingly innocuous answers can be incriminating admissions. That one is 40 minutes long, so save that link to watch when time permits and then share it with anyone you think should see it.
The other video is posted below. It “stars” Canton, OH, police officer Daniel Harless demanding mere citizens “Back the Blue” by cowering in fear—or else. He does that by screaming like a psycho and threatening a motorist who had to wait until he could get a word in edgewise to comply with Ohio’s (at the time) law and disclose that he was carrying a permitted pistol.
This is no way to run a free Republic.
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
