Letter to the Editor

“(3) Any county, city, or village ordinance, permit, or regulation in violation of subsection (2) of this section is declared to be null and void.” This is part of the language in a new piece of legislation currently working its way through to the governor’s desk in Lincoln. This language intentionally nullifies our ability to govern at a county and city level and simply pass the power to a state level to legislate more laws in Lincoln that we then must live by on a day-to-day basis. The subject of the new law is something I actually support so this makes for a tricky situation. The language in this is part of LB77 or the “constitutional carry” bill. But it goes a step further in saying, “(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of any home rule charter, counties, cities, and villages shall not have the power (a) regulate the ownership, possession, storage, or transfer of firearms or other weapons, except as expressly provided by state law; or (b) require registration of firearms or other weapons.” I will cut to the chase and be blunt, I am a hardcore gun guy, I love my guns and I legally carry every day. This issue is not with the guns, it is in our state government on the other end of the state is through legislation setting a legal precedent that we are no longer allowed to self-govern and must yield control to the capitol. I have found in my life and in my travels that power is like a pendulum, it will swing left and right on a regular basis changing hands often. When that pendulum swings the other way even for a brief time will we be willing to live with whatever mandates Lincoln chooses to dictate to us? I will say this again though, my outrage is not about the right to carry guns in the State of Nebraska without a permit, this is the language used to nullify our local sovereignty. This is about the right of every Nebraska resident to have their own voices heard and for communities to be able to govern accordingly in any situation. A few years ago when we thought the federal government was going to seize guns we enacted in both Kimball and Cheyenne Counties gun sanctuary laws. This put the power into the county sheriff and not the politicians in Lincoln to protect our rights. I do feel we are blessed to have one of the best Law enforcement officers and morally sound human beings as our Cheyenne County Sheriff and I put my faith in him still to this day. To me what the legislature in Lincoln is doing is a formal denouncement of county and local government, it’s a simple case of discreditation. By the wish of Lincoln should we simply disband our county commissioners, city council, and county sheriffs in favor of state authority? At what point have we lost the ability to elect and hold accountable our local government and by whom was this determination of incompetence made against us? Beware the slippery slope of power my friends, once it is gone we will never regain what we have lost. I seem to recall many stories of Native Americans losing their lands and freedoms for some shiny beads and trinkets, those lessons seem very relevant now.

~ Brad Brothers, Potter, NE