Nebraska State Senator introduces bill aimed at administration’s gun control orders Contributor: Chris King Twitter @ChrisKingNE

District 15 State Sen. Charlie Janssen of Fremont fired off legislation on Tuesday aimed at countering gun control executive orders issued by the Obama administration.

President Barack Obama on Jan. 16 signed 23 gun-related executive orders, 33 days after 20 children and six adults were killed in a violent shooting rampage at a Newton, Conn., school.

Janssen, who introduced LB451 along with District 3 Sen. Scott Price of Bellevue, said the administration’s orders go too far and violate 2nd Amendment rights.

LB451, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, would make any federal law passed after Jan. 1 which places new restrictions on firearm or magazine ownership, or which places new registration requirements on firearm ownership, unenforceable in Nebraska.

“This is in direct response to the Obama administration’s attempt to violate our 2nd Amendment right to bear arms,” Janssen said. “Right now we have literally thousands of gun laws on the books, and here’s the deal, criminals don’t read or abide by the gun laws. If you want to reduce the number of guns on the streets that are illegal, what you do is enforce the laws that we now have on the books and you lock up the bad guys. That will reduce gun violence, not adding more laws.”

Janssen, who has three children, said he too was horrified by the events in Connecticut, but “I just think that the president coming out and using this tragedy to continue to try to weaken the 2nd Amendment and our rights, I think that’s misguided.”

A U.S. Navy veteran, Janssen wrote in an email promoting an electronic petition in support of LB451, that Nebraskans and Americans cannot “sit idly by and let this administration tread on these (2nd Amendment) rights.”

“As state senator and as a Persian Gulf War veteran who has served this country and defended our inherent freedoms, I have a responsibility to act now and fight for the rights of law-abiding Nebraska citizens,” he wrote.

“It is time to send a message to those in Washington, D.C., that we will not stand for the continual erosion of our rights and freedoms,” he wrote. “The 2nd Amendment is clear, and its constitutional protections should be honored.”

The petition is available at www.votejanssen.com, on Janssen’s Facebook page, or people can dial #250 on their cellphones and state the key word “gun rights,” to track and support the bill.

“I just want Nebraskans to know that I’m going to stand up for their rights,” he told the Tribune. “This is an invasion on our 2nd Amendment rights, and if people want to help I can’t say enough to dial #250 and say keyword ‘gun rights’ at the prompt. That will get you involved, because it’s really going to take the people to get this legislation through, and also to basically send a statement to other state senators that are thinking about restricting guns on the state level.”

Janssen said the 10th Amendment allows the Legislature to protect the state from “far-reaching federal government.”

“Some people will say there’s a supremacy clause, the federal government reigns supreme. … I would disagree with that,” he said. “If you talk about illegal immigration, the federal government has no problem coming in and basically saying states can’t do anything. If you’re talking firearms, they’re probably going to say the same thing.

“Yet Colorado and Washington passed marijuana laws, and the federal government is fine for states to go ahead and pass marijuana laws, they don’t come down on them.

“That should tell you something about this administration’s priorities. … They’re basically choosing pot over our Constitutional 2nd Amendment right to bear arms,” he said.

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