LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska lawmakers are considering legislation that would exempt gun registrations from public record and add new responsibilities for business owners who want to prohibit firearms in their shops.
The state should add any information gathered for gun registrations to a set of records including medical records and students’ academic records that are not available to the public, Sen. Bruce Bostelman of Brainard told a legislative committee Wednesday. He said this would protect private information that could be used for identity theft or to harass gun owners.
“Once such information is public, there’s no way to contain it and it can be used to harass these individuals,” he said.
Nebraska already exempts information on concealed carry permits from public record. Several other states limit or prohibit public access to gun registration information, and more have attempted to pass such laws since a local newspaper in New York published the names and addresses of gun permit holders following the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Releasing addresses of gun owners puts both them and non-gun owners at risk of robberies, said Patricia Harrold of the Nebraska Firearm Holder Association. She said the government is responsible for keeping individuals’ private data safe.
The bill would limit researchers and analysts who want to study gun crimes committed by people who legally own guns, said Courtney Lawton of Nebraskans Against Gun Violence.
“The unicameral should be concerned about creating laws and policies that are data-driven, instead of suppressing data and then passing laws based on conjecture,” she said. “We need to be able to track this stuff to make reasonable laws.”
Another measure sponsored by Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon would require owners of private businesses that prohibit guns on their property to post conspicuous signs saying guns aren’t allowed and tell people they see carrying guns that firearms aren’t permitted in the business.
“As it is, all someone has to do to break the law is show up somewhere with a lawfully permitted handgun and be unaware it isn’t allowed on the premises,” Brewer said.
The responsibility should be on gun carriers, not business owners and managers, said Jo Ann Emerson, the retired executive director of Lincoln’s Lux Center for the Arts. She told the committee she calls ahead to ask if she can bring a snack to performances, and gun owners should do the same with their firearms.
The measure would allow employees to ask police to tell gun carriers they can’t have guns in the building, but Lincoln attorney Danielle Savington said that may not always be an option.
“The bill would put women like me who are business owners in the position of accosting strangers,” Savington said.
Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings presented a bill that would make committing a crime with a toy gun a separate felony charge. It also would prohibit many juvenile delinquents from possessing firearms until age 25. Halloran’s bill earned support from prosecutors and law enforcement officers, but committee members said it is too broad.
A bill sponsored by Sen. John Lowe of Kearney and heard by the committee Wednesday would allow individuals to transport guns if they’re unloaded and kept in a container. It responds to a December Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that upheld a lower court’s decision to fine a man who had a loaded gun in a case behind the passenger seat of the truck he was driving.
Lincoln resident Mo Neal said she hates attending the hearings but will keep coming back as long as the National Rifle Association brings “these stupid bills.”
“We ought to start making stronger gun laws rather than bringing icing-on-the-cake gun laws for the NRA component,” she said.
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