AUBURN – Commissioners in Otoe and Nemaha counties have joined 80 other Nebraska county boards in resolutions declaring Second Amendment Sanctuaries.
Nemaha County Board Chairman Bryan Mellage said he has received numerous letters and citizen encounters since the resolution was first discussed in April.
Mellage: “One of the things I said last time was that I would like to see some support and boy, did I see it. I think that’s just fantastic. “
Al Witte told commissioners that their passage of the resolution shows support for LB188, which introduces the Second Amendment Preservation Act in the state Legislature. He said LB 188 will ensure that state employees are not compelled to follow through on federal directives in violation of the Second Amendment.
Witte: “By this subdivision, this county board, signing this resolution sends the message to state senators to move this onto the floor for discussion and get it to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.”
Nemaha County Sheriff Brent Lottman said federal courts have already ruled that state officers can’t be forced to do federal work.
Bill Aultz of Nebraska City has been active in several organizations in support of the Second Amendment for the past couple of years.
He asked the Otoe County Board and Nebraska City City Council to pass sanctuary ordinances prior to the pandemic, but both declined.
Otoe County revisited the issue Tuesday and passed an ordinance.
Aultz: “It shows locally — and that’s where everybody has to start at, is locally, and branch out to their state and then to the federal government and let them know that their constituents — this is what they are feeling, this is what they know and this is what is right. It’s a God-given right. Our forefathers put it in words and bit by bit, decade by decade, people have been trying to tear it apart.”
Jennifer Hicks of Peru said she got involved in the Second Amendment Sanctuary County Movement through the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association and Nebraskans Against Government Overreach.
Hicks: “This is more than just a feel-good proclamation from our county, because it provides clarity to our local residents, the citizens, as to where we stand, because we have received direct threats from the Biden Administration to our Second Amendment rights.”
She said it is worrisome when President Biden says the Second Amendment is not absolute and when he links gun rights to public health.
Hicks: “He has said explicitly that he wishes to treat gun ownership as a public health crisis and we’ve seen over the last year what extents our government will go to in the name of public health crisis.”
She said the Second Amendment Sanctuary resolutions are important to show support for legislation like LB188 and show resistance to comparing restrictions on the Second Amendment to restrictions on speech.
Hicks: “He says the First Amendment is not absolute because you can’t shout ‘fire’ in a crowded theater. This is disturbing to me personally because I think he doesn’t have the discernment to understand that a person who shouts fire in a crowded theater is doing something maliciously. You don’t do that unless there is a fire. If you do that when there is no fire, then you’re doing it to create a disruption – you’re doing it with malicious intent. The same can not be said for Second Amendment, for firearm owners.”
Gov. Pete Ricketts proclaimed Nebraska a Second Amendment Sanctuary State in April.
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