Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
03-08-2019

In our Congress in Washington, D.C., House Resolution (HR) 1263 is a bill that was recently introduced. It makes semi-automatic rifles and shotguns all but illegal. You would have to register these guns and pay a steep federal tax to legally possess them. After 120 days from the enactment of the law, you would be guilty of a federal felony if you hadn’t complied. This is a direct attack on the 2nd Amendment.

Closer to home, in a somewhat more subtle attack on the 2nd Amendment, a Lincoln Senator introduced LB 58. This is commonly called a “Red Flag” law. This would allow the police to confiscate a person’s guns WITHOUT due process of law, and even without the person’s knowledge. Any family member, current or former spouse, anyone they have ever dated or been a roommate with can go to law enforcement. They can tell a story about how they think you are a risk to yourself and others and presto! Without ever hearing your side of the story, the court can issue a temporary order and the police are at your door confiscating your guns.

LB 58 says that you would get a hearing within roughly a month to decide whether the short-term, temporary order will remain in effect for a longer period. So now you have to hire a lawyer. That probably means writing a retainer check just for the lawyer to begin working. Then you have to take time out of your schedule and miss work to prepare for a hearing with that newly hired attorney. If you don’t have a couple thousand dollars on hand, you will have to represent yourself.

Imagine the process goes as proposed in LB 58. IF the judge decides at that hearing that there is no good evidence for continuing the order, that means that your firearms rights would be restored. But that sure would not feel much like justice to the person who has just been raided by police, been forced to spend thousands of dollars on an attorney, and missed work in the meantime. The bill as written doesn’t address this unfairness because the gun owner’s rights are not important to many Senators in our Legislature.

Every time a horrible event comes across the news wire, I urge people to resist the temptation to recommend the typical knee-jerk, Nanny State Solution to ban guns. It is very easy to assume that more gun control will result in less crime, but this is false. Gun control laws only “control” people inclined to obey the law in the first place – the law-abiding. Murder is ALREADY illegal. More gun laws don’t stop gun violence. There is no logic – or evidence – to support how restrictions on law-abiding gun owners is going to make a bit of difference. I wish our elected officials in Washington and Lincoln could understand this.

Please contact my office with any comments, questions or concerns. Email me at; tbrewer@leg.ne.gov. Mail a letter to; Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509 or call us at (402) 471-2628.