Posted on 01/17/2013 8:00:31 PM PST by Red Steel
This is one Sheriff’s open opinion and want it to be known to the people of my county. I’m sure most sheriffs feel the same way as I do. I am adamantly opposed to any thing that infringes on our Constitutional rights; gun control is one that’s a burr under my saddle.
What happened in Sandy Hook and the theater in Colorado are tragic and I feel for those families deeply. I hate it when people suffer and die no matter the cause. It should be realized, it was the deranged people who killed those innocent people not the gun. Just as in 9/11 and the Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah Federal Building these are deranged people with a goal to kill.
The difference was Sandy Point and the theater were semi-automatic guns and 9/11 was the use of airplanes and the Murrah Building was fertilizer and diesel fuel. If the deranged person or persons are intent on killing they don’t have to have a gun, they will find another way. In at least two separate incidents in the past year China had school attacks by deranged people with knives. Is our federal government going to ban airplanes, fertilizer, diesel fuel and knives?
Gun control doesn’t work. What we need is control of mentally ill and deranged people. Sometime in the late 70s or 1980, the courts started saying that the mentally ill have rights and could not be locked up even though they had homicidal thoughts and tendencies. Thus we opened the doors of mental intuitions, releasing thousands of mentally ill people on the streets. Many of those institutions are closed today. We further put in place more rights of privacy which limited access of mental records of deranged people. Finally we got Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996 which again put more limitations on what law enforcement could get on mentally ill people.
Today, as a cop, we find more and more people with mental issues. In Kimball County we have scores of transient and homeless people passing through. My deputies and I offer them rides to the county line and frankly, less than one percent are not mentally ill.
When a person comes into my office and wants a state gun permit to purchase a firearm we check their criminal history but have no way to check if the person has ever been treated for mental illness. The form they fill out asks “Have you ever been adjudicated mentally defective (which includes having been adjudicated incompetent to manage your own affairs) or have you ever been committed to a mental institution?” but we have no way to check if a person has been demeaned or treated for mental illness. The federal form asks the same question when a person actually makes the purchase.
To me it’s kind of a stupid question…guess they’d have to be crazy if they answered “Yes.”
Back to gun control. Connecticut has one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation yet a deranged person stole a lawfully owned firearm, killing the owner (his mother) then killing 26 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Where gun control is tighter is Europe; you might remember the news a few years back of a deranged man who killed 77 in Norway with guns and a homemade bomb (most of the victims were children) or the school shooting in Paris. The worst school killing was Beslan, Russia where deranged terrorists killed 385 people…186 were children. No matter how strict the gun control is, mentally ill deranged people will kill. Let’s not forget more people are killed in the United States by beatings each year than guns. Has gun control worked anywhere? The answer is simple, No.
In closing, as Sheriff in this county I believe that every law abiding and mentally competent person should own a gun. I firmly believe you should exercise that right before the President enacts gun control under executive order.
I will not enforce any executive order which impinges on your Constitutional rights, to include gun control or collection of weapons, as Sheriff.
The bottom line is you have the right to own and possess firearms as guaranteed by our Constitution, as Sheriff I have sworn that I will uphold that law and will.
Make sure that when you come in to get your gun permit, please ask for me. I personally want to shake your hand and thank you for exercising your right to own a firearm.
You have to go to the county sheriff’s office in Nebraska to get a permit to buy a firearm?
Three cheers for a patriot!
But.....as for locking up the mentally ill I remember back in the late 80s and early 90s “treatment centers” were popping up all over Texas. Turns out school counselors were being paid “spiffs” for every student they got sent to the center. If a doctor or other health professional gets you committed you’ll get out when your insurance runs out. In Texas even if you volunteer to go in you can’t leave for 72 hours. So, we have to be careful.
I speculate simply from experience, watching, reading over many years the Left, a minority in this country has used the tactic to their advantage of procuring voters by using our laws against us. This isn’t new. Many have speculated about this before.
I do believe the Left whom were deeply involved in the shutting down of the mental institutions beginning in the forties, and increasing the pressure on government throughout the fifties, and sixties did so with the intent of absorbing under their umbrella that many more voters.
So much of what they do is specifically to increase the amount of voters under their umbrella. The open borders, the amnesty for illegals, Gay rights, all of this is for the purpose of increasing their voting bloc. The Left doesn’t really give a rats tail about these people other than their votes.
Note that every single issue organization no matter how whack-o is supported by the Democrat Party. Again for the purpose of increasing their voting bloc.
What we have as a ruined society today is the result of the Left’s tenacious drive for power.
When I lived In NC you had to get a Sheriff's permit to buy a handgun. NE, I don't know.
Come on man. You know what he means. I hope you do. (look of shock and perplexity on face) He means your concealed I’m sure. Either way some counties require a gun permit to carry in vehicles and such other than concealed.
Pursuant to Nebraska Statute 69-2403 a handgun certificate is required to purchase, lease, rent, or receive a handgun. The law applies to both retail and private party transactions. The law also prohibits selling, leasing, renting, or transferring a handgun to a person who does not possess a handgun certificate. A certificate is not required if:
The person acquiring the handgun is a licensed firearms dealer; The handgun is an antique; The person acquiring the handgun is authorized to do so on behalf of a law enforcement agency; The transfer is temporary and the transferee remains within (a) in the line of sight of the transferor or (b) within the premises of an established shooting facility; or The transfer is between a person and his or her spouse, sibling, parent, child, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, or grandparent.
Look at post 7. You need a permit to obtain a handgun.
I’m in Omaha. One does need a permit to purchase handguns. The Sheriff’s office has them. If one lives in the Omaha metro, the handguns also have to be registered with the Omaha Police Dept. You buy your permit, you take it to the store, they check it out, you buy your piece, they give you the receipt you take it downtown to the OPD HQ where you stand around while they ‘check it out’ some more, after they stamp the receipt you take it back to the store and they give you your gun.
Handgun purchase permit valid for 3 years . No permit for long arms.
Hmmm.interesting. Post number 7 was not in place when I was responding. Here in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, no need. Thanks for pointing that out.
I live in Louisiana. Isn’t it great. You can carry a loaded weapon anywhere in your vehicle without a CCW.
Excellent! :o)
No requirement to have it to own a handgun, just for initial purchase.so if it expires no harm no foul
This also substitutes for the federal background check many shops were forced to run on buyers. I just bought a new 45 handgun. Whole process took less then 7 minutes start to me out the door.
Not required for person to person sales.
Still probably won’t move to Nebraska but for 5 bucks for 5 years in lieu of fed background check, but still a trip to the county shriff’s office.
Tough Sell.
I suppose in larger cities its a big deal to go to the sheriffs dept. In my town of 33,000 I was the only guy in the walk in. Plus I own a gym a half block away and the gun store is nearby as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.