One alleged problem we have with guns in this country is that there's no way to determine who is really a threat to the general public until they do something that shows them to be a threat. Under our system, though, that doesn't matter. Innocent until proven guilty, after all.
And not everyone who is guilty of some minor offense will do something far more major.
Yet a law in Nebraska that righted a wrong, where even minor offenders were treated as if they were hardened, career criminals, among other insane local regulations, is now under fire because one example is being blown up in the public eye.
In fairness, though, it involves an alleged cop shooter.
The 36-year-old man charged with shooting an Omaha police officer on Monday was previously denied a handgun purchase permit by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. But because of a state law that went into effect in 2023, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was later required to issue the permit to him.
The Sheriff’s Office had denied Shedrick Mills’ permit application in July 2021, Sheriff Aaron Hanson told The World-Herald on Wednesday. Sheriff’s Office documents showed Mills’ application was rejected because Mills had been convicted of marijuana possession in 2011. Mills filed a notice to appeal the permit’s denial but failed to show for the court hearing.
After Legislative Bill 77, which superseded Omaha’s restrictions, was signed into law in 2023, Mills was no longer considered a prohibited person at the local level. That required the Sheriff’s Office to approve his permit request in November 2023.
“We had to follow state law and issue him a valid handgun purchase permit,” Hanson said. “We had no choice.”
An attorney at Mills’ court appearance on Wednesday said Mills does not have any prior felony convictions or convictions for domestic violence. Mills has been charged with domestic violence, but the case hasn’t been decided yet.
In other words, he had no prohibiting convictions after the law, while he did before LB 77 was passed.
And what conviction he had only applied in Omaha. Had he moved, he'd have still been able to get a firearm lawfully. That's what's missing from this.
LB 77 is basically Nebraska's preemption law, which not just prevented local gun control, but also nullified what regulations previously existed. This is important because, while this is being cited as the way Mills was able to get a firearm, the rules that were nullified wouldn't have stopped him from moving out of Douglas County and buying a gun just the same.
I can't really stress this enough.
Let's also note that this is an isolated example, being held under the microscope because of what Mills is accused of doing.
Yet how many others were jammed up under this same stupid law, who now have firearms they purchased lawfully after LB 77 passed, and have done nothing criminal? How many have defended themselves with those guns that pre-LB 77 Omaha would have denied them?
What they've done here is simply frame this as the result of the law, making out like there were no other outcomes as a result of the measure, all so people will be outraged that an officer was shot because the state passed a law that overrode a local ordinance that would have (supposedly) kept him disarmed.
I'm not so sure.
While he may have a relatively clean record, the fact that he's got a domestic violence charge already and had that marijuana possession charge from 2011 suggests he's not been a fine, upstanding citizen this whole time. He just seems not to have been caught.
That means he probably could have gotten a gun either way.
But that won't make it into the hack reporting we're seeing here. Funny how that keeps shaking out, isn't it?
Weird.
