“It was a cup of good intentions, a tablespoon of one big mess, a dash of overreaction, and I assume you know the rest!

One little slip… one little slip. It was a fusion of confusion with a few confounding things.” - BareNakedLadies

Nebraska LB 958, proposed by 6 like-minded state Senators, calls for several new measures on gun ownership. Here are some of the highlights:

*Requires trigger locks on all guns sold.
*Requires gun owners to report guns stolen to the local police, or face Class IV Misdemeanor charges.
*Creates the Gun Violence Commission
*Initiates a Public Awareness program by the Nebraska State Patrol
*Gun owners are now required to submit a form to the Chief of Police or the County Sheriff before purchasing, leasing, renting, or transferring a gun (a $5 fee and a form is required).

In light of the recent Omaha Westroads Mall mass murder, there’s still a tendency in most American communities to lay blame with someone other than the actual perpetrator. One of the injured from that day was quoted on a local news station blaming the gun owner (not the shooter) for the shooting. Read it here. The Omaha shooting was a terrible tragedy, but if you want to play hypotheticals, we can do that all day. “What if the gun owner had reported his gun stolen?” is a fair hypothetical. How about this one: “What if that nutjob was put in a mental institution after the 5th or 6th time he threatened to murder someone?” Or this: “What if there were more armed civilians in the mall that day?” Or, “What if his parents broke off a few more switches in his youth?” The danger with this approach is that in the clear 20/20 vision of hindsight, government officials see a clear path to enforcing more control over our lives. The slippery slope starts with the best of intentions, “for our own good.”

LB 958 is seemingly innocuous, but consider where it can lead. “Sure,” the government says, “we’re just making a new commission and requiring gun locks, no harm to the 2nd Amendment!” Later it will be, “Well, the 2nd Amendment only applies to the police and military, so all handguns must be turned in. Rifles for hunting are o.k. (for now).” In another decade or so, hunting will be outlawed along with smoking and beer “for our own good.” If the liberal establishment can just get a generation of kids old enough to be the majority of voters without having any expectation of freedom or independence, they’ll have their Utopian (read Communist) society.

What we need in Nebraska is a stronger police force; put more cops on the streets. Stronger sentences for gun crimes, and an effective gang violence unit. Government doesn’t need to get involved in everyone’s lives; it just needs to do the few jobs that it does have more effectively.

Comment on this at www.baldeaglereport.com, and give me some good feedback on my site!

Thanks.

-The Bald Eagle