Omaha's ban on bump stocks and ghost guns survives court challenge

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

Dan Crisler 27 mins ago

A Douglas County District Court judge ruled the City of Omaha did not violate a 2023 Nebraska law when the City Council passed an ordinance to ban bump stocks and untraceable guns.

Judge LeAnne Srb’s January ruling brought an end to a two-year legal fight between the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association and the City of Omaha, along with former Mayor Jean Stothert.

The Nebraska Firearms Owners Association, along with five Nebraska gun owners, filed the lawsuit against the city in December 2023 after the council and Stothert enacted firearms regulations around the time Legislative Bill 77, a state law that legalized people to carry concealed weapons without a permit and largely superseded local gun laws, passed earlier that year.

Srb ruled the city’s prohibition on bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic firearms to act as automatic weapons, passed via ordinance, was legally sound since LB 77 did not address bump stocks. The firearms association and the five gun owners argued in the lawsuit that the ordinance violated state law because, Srb noted in her ruling, bump stocks “fall within the meaning of firearms because they are essential components to the operation of a firearm.”


Read more: http://archive.today/hZGMy

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[Martin68]

1. Good news. I appears there are actually some lines that can be established. Each step in the right direction makes it

more likely that more can be accomplished down the road.

[Norrrm]

2. Department of Justice Announces Bump-Stock-Type Devices Final Rule - 2018

Department of Justice Announces Bump-Stock-Type Devices Final Rule
https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-bump-stock-type-devices-final-rule

Today, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker announced that the Department of Justice has amended the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), clarifying that bump stocks fall within the definition of “machinegun” under federal law, as such devices allow a shooter of a semiautomatic firearm to initiate a continuous firing cycle with a single pull of the trigger.

Acting Attorney General Whitaker made the following statement:

“President Donald Trump is a law and order president, who has signed into law millions of dollars in funding for law enforcement officers in our schools, and under his strong leadership, the Department of Justice has prosecuted more gun criminals than ever before as we target violent criminals. We are faithfully following President Trump’s leadership by making clear that bump stocks, which turn semiautomatics into machine guns, are illegal, and we will continue to take illegal guns off of our streets.”