Dueling gun laws lead to confusion(NE)

omaha.com ^ | 5 February, 2010 | Paul Hammel

[marktwain]

LINCOLN — Is Omaha a confusing place for gun owners?

Not if you ask City Prosecutor Marty Conboy.

Conboy said the city’s handgun registration ordinance still applies to people who have obtained a state concealed-gun permit, despite a state law adopted last year to nullify city ordinances banning concealed guns.

“State law doesn’t regulate registration,” Conboy said Thursday.

His comments came after plenty of confusion was voiced about Omaha’s ordinance during a public hearing of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.

Some of those testifying at the hearing, as well as State Sen. Colby Coash of Lincoln, said a recent memo from Conboy seemed to indicate that Omaha could not enforce its registration law against those with state concealed-carry permits.

Conboy, when reached by phone after the hearing, said that wasn’t true. The city ordinance, he said, still applies.

State Sen. Mark Christensen of Imperial said he’s trying to clarify that through Legislative Bill 1033. It would exempt those with state permits, even Omahans, from having to comply with the Omaha registration law.

Christensen said it’s particularly wrong for law-abiding non-Omahans who have qualified for the state concealed-carry permit to face possible confiscation of their handguns when passing through the city.

“It’s very awkward,” Christensen said. Other proponents of LB 1033 said criminals don’t register handguns, so the ordinance is ineffective.

However, Todd Schmaderer, a deputy Omaha police chief, testified against LB 1033.

He said the handgun registration ordinance, under which 4,500 guns were registered in 2008, is an important investigative tool that helps solve crimes.

[marktwain]

Let us see the example of where registration was used to solve crimes. Canada has had pistol registration since the 1930's, and it may have helped solve one crime in the past 80 years, and that is uncertain.

[Cacique]

I thought it was a thread on legalized dueling. In Argentina duels amongst government officials and military officers are legal. Rarely applied, but it keep you disciplined as to what comes out of your mouth in front of others.

[Chode]

who do they think they are... NewYork???

[Freddd]

In West Virginia, you can drive with a loaded gun in your vehicle as long as it is not hidden. Not hidden. Laid on the dash or out in the open, not concealed.

Need a conceal carry permit to conceal a gun in a vehicle though.

Nope, most people don’t know that. They believe you cannot have a loaded gun in the vehicle. Or they think the gun can be in the passenger compartment, but the bullets have to be ‘away’ from the gun, say in a trunk....(which is true during hunting season)....

[Kartographer]

Just another example of Politicos and bureaucrats who believe the constitutions says that citizens have the right to be ‘bare’ of arms.

[JimRed]

He said the handgun registration ordinance, under which 4,500 guns were registered in 2008, is an important investigative tool that helps solve crimes.

Really? Just how many legally owned and registered firearms which have not been stolen from their legal owners have been involved in crimes? And you're not allowed to count posessing it in the wrong place as a crime; only criminal use of the weapon.

(crickets)

[I Buried My Guns]

"...they think the gun can be in the passenger compartment, but the bullets have to be ‘away’ from the gun, say in a trunk...."

That is the way it is in CA.

[Gilbo_3]

same in Ky...if its visible, it ‘legal’...

[Gilbo_3]

forgot to add...this small d!cked cicil ‘servant’ needs a couple dozen suits filed with his name on em...personally...

[marktwain]

It could have a beneficial effect to have dueling legal. It was an institution in the US until the end of the Civil War.

[US Navy Vet]

Omaha(and E. Ben Nelson) are liberal inflamed pustuales on the backside of a REAL Conservative state(Nebraska). The rest of the state is pretty conservative. I live in Iowa and work in NE.