Yesterday I watched Rachel Maddow talk about the Mayor of Grand Island Nebraska begging the Federal government to help them.
It reminded me of an EPIC battle my friends at Nebraskans Against Gun Violence won to defeat a bill in which the state would preempt any local gun laws.
Back in the spring of 2017 NAGV’s Danni Layne and I both talked to Grand Island city attorney Jerry Janulewicz about the bill prior to the vote. We focused on safety. The preemption law would have prevented safe storage of guns, gun powder and ammunition. Laws would have to be changed or face lawsuits from NRA lawyers.
Besides a meat packing plant, Grand Island has a major ammunition manufacturer. We spoke with the public safety officials in the city and pointed out that local control is important, especially when the conditions in their city are different than in the rest of the state. For example fire safety laws around ammo storage.
The local fire marshal noted that if the gun preemption law was passed the city legally couldn’t enforce fire safety laws around ammunition storage.
The bill was defeated. The city was able to keep its safety laws.
In addition, I believe that Nebraska is under a Federal emergency order as well as a state emergency. If I was a smart person I would look into what those laws actual say and see what I can COMPEL the Feds or the state to do to help. And then I would get my legislators to bring it up to the press, state-wide and nationally.
I’ll bet an Ernie Chamber’s level mind could find something in the state law to help. I don’t know Federal emergency law but shouldn’t Nebraska’s US Reps or Senators be looking into this?
