139 Nebraskans now OK’d to conceal weapons

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By LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star

One month after Nebraska started accepting applications for permits to carry concealed weapons, 139 people across the state have the permits.

How that may change traffic stops for local law enforcement hasn’t become clear just yet.

“It’s still relatively new for everybody,” said Jim Peschong, assistant chief of the Lincoln Police Department.

He said officers definitely are aware Nebraska’s Concealed Handgun Permit Law went into effect Jan. 3. Officers have to be much more aware now that people they stop for normal traffic issues could end up having firearms.

Granted, police always have that concern in the back of their minds, he said, but now it’s different.

“Now you’ve got a whole different class of people that may be carrying them.”

Concealed weapon permit holders who get stopped are required to inform officers if they have their weapon concealed.

But Peschong worries that some permit holders might forget what they’re supposed to do and pull out their concealed weapon to show the officer.

“That’s apt to cause a whole different response,” he said. “There’s this learning curve.”

Should permit holders forget to tell police they have a concealed weapon, which is required by state law, police may still find out. But not necessarily.

Peschong said the information will be included in driver’s license checks — if an officer runs one. Officers typically run a check for arrest warrants instead.

But police may have access to the information another way.

By law, names of permit holders are not public record, although they are to be available upon request of law enforcement agencies.

In time, Peschong expects to get a list of the county’s permit holders from the Nebraska State Patrol, which is issuing the permits.

“We’re hoping, as I understand that, yes, we probably will,” he said. “But I think right now it’s kind of chaotic.”

Peschong said the patrol is busy processing permits, trying to meet turnaround deadlines.

Lincoln police already have an idea of who may be getting them. Peschong said the patrol asked local agencies to run the records of those who applied in their county, checking for city ordinance violations that might exclude someone from being approved but might not show up on a statewide search.

He had a spreadsheet with 25 or 30 names on it of people who applied.

“We definitely do want to know,” Peschong said.

He said if police get called about a person who is suicidal it would help to know if he or she carries a concealed weapon.

Peschong suspects the names are something people in the community would want to know, too.

“A lot of this stuff just doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Why is that not public?”

In pages detailing debate of the concealed carry bill on the floor of the Legislature, a passage suggesting the names be confidential was barely mentioned.

On March 10, 2006, then-Sen. Jeanne Combs of Milligan said part of the idea was that people don’t know who has them and who doesn’t.

“So that might provide some modicum of safety,” she said.

Last week, Combs asked why anyone would need to know who was carrying a concealed weapon.

“Information should be confidential unless there’s a good reason to give it out,” she said.

Sex offenders could be a danger to their neighbors, so there’s a list. But, Combs said, permit holders haven’t been proven to be a danger so far. And, if the information were public, permit holders could be targeted by burglars looking for expensive guns, she said.

“I see more harm than good from releasing a list,” Combs said. “It boils down to, this is America, this is not communist China.”

She said she thinks things are going pretty well so far.

“I’m just glad it got passed.”

Apparently, so are the 346 people who have filled out the paperwork to carry concealed.

State Patrol Spokeswoman Deb Collins said 139 have gone through the required training and background checks and have their permits to carry their handguns in their waistbands or in holsters beneath their coats.

The other 207 are waiting for their requests to be processed.

Collins said the patrol hired four full-time and 10 part-time workers to process all of the state’s permits in the criminal identification division in Lincoln.

Requests are taken at the patrol’s six troop area headquarters across the state — in Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk, Grand Island, North Platte and Scottsbluff — although the State Patrol doesn’t yet have a way to break the information down by county.

Collins said they’re getting questions as people navigate the process and seeing fairly steady numbers following the population base. The Omaha and Lincoln areas have the most requests so far.

“It’s going as expected, I believe,” she said.

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.