Dear Don Bacon, Representative of Nebraska,

My name is Sunny Fang, and I am a teenager who has resided in Nebraska for years. I, along with my friend Evelyn Chao, are writing to you to file suggestions for gun laws in Nebraska. We truly understand and respect your stance of opposing to strict gun control, but as we have done research on gun rights in Nebraska, we firmly believe that it is necessary to have gun rights reforms in order to give the state a better future. Today, we are here to propose three major changes we hope to see in the state’s law regarding weapons: implementing stricter gun control laws in general e.g. reverse the reform that allows university-sanctioned firearms teams to possess rifles, pistols, and shotguns on campus, establishing stricter restrictions for applying for the CCW permit, and prohibiting the open carry of weapons in public. Although it might seem to be unreasonable to ask for these reforms, we have researched on the gun death rates in Nebraska. As of 2017, the suicide rate is 13.07 per 100 thousand people, compared to the 13.47 national rate. In terms of black homicide rate, research has shown that there are 28.17 killings per 100,000 black people in 2014. Such a rate is twice the national black homicide rate and almost seven times the nation’s overall homicide rate. Even though it’s argued that fatalities are not directly correlated with gun control, the accessibility of guns do contribute to fatalities since it’s a weapon that could harm or even kill one directly and immediately.
First off, we would like to request to reverse the loose gun restriction that was established in summer 2018. The reform permits university-sanctioned firearms teams to possess rifles, pistols, and shotguns on campus. However, we firmly believe that this change wouldn’t be beneficial. It’s true that it allows firearms teams to have a wider range of variety in terms of firearms, but the law doesn’t explicitly restrict students from utilizing their firearms outside their firearms teams meetings, which could be potentially dangerous and further lead to tragic incidents on campus. Even though school shootings happen relatively rarely in Nebraska, data has proven how the US, with ongoing gun control debate, has the highest rate of school shootings of 288 incidents, according to the CNN. This is 57 times as many shootings as the other six G7 nations, which are nations with advanced economies, combined. Gun violence is the reason why shootings occur. Thus, we believe it would be hard to regulate students on the firearms teams despite being university students. The mindset here isn’t distrusting the university students, but to protect other students to make them feel safe. The next legislation we proposed to change is to have stricter CCW permit regulations. The current guidelines include requirements such as age, vision test, residence, citizenship, etc. However, the regulations should also include mental health check as well. I have heard from my friend, who had her grandfather accidentally shot and murdered by his neighbor just because his neighbor believed there was loud music. Therefore, we believe that mental health check is essential as part of the CCW permit regulations to prevent unnecessary tragedies. Last but definitely not least, we hope to prohibit the open carry of any forms of weapons in public places. We believe that under the state’s modified Castle Doctrine law, it’s better to restrict the carry of guns in one citizen’s home instead of allowing the carry of guns in public places. We recognize how places such as churches, schools, bars, and government buildings prohibit the carry of a gun. However, we see it as unnessary to allow citizens to carry guns in public places such as state parks. Public terror could arouse with the permission of open carry, and we deem it as unnecessary to have citizens fearing potential shootings in the state.

You once stated, “Gun control is a recipe for only the criminals having guns.” However, we don’t believe so. If gun control is enforced strictly, gun crimes and rates could be decreased drastically. According to a 0-100 score rating for each state’s strictness in terms of firearm laws, the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Campaign together found out how Hawaii and California, respectively, scored 72.5 and 93.5, which proves how they have pretty strict gun control. These two states also fall on the lower end of the fatalities spectrum, proving how stricter gun control can bring down gun death rates. With the aforementioned points and ideas, we firmly believe gun control in Nebraska should be reformed to become stricter instead of looser.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best regards,
Sunny Fang and Evelyn Chao