Unicameral Safety Concerns

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to explore this issue a little further of
increasing security at our Nebraska state capital, and the state
Senator Ben Hansen joins us for a few minutes. Ben,
good to have you back.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Good morning, Yeah, thanks for having grey.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
What do we have in place now if I want
to go in there and cause trouble?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, right now, if you want to cause trouble, nothing's
really going to stop you because we have no, I
guess preliminary measures when you walk into the Capitol to
make sure that you're not carrying a firearm illegally and
with intention to do harm. So that's some of the
steps we're trying to implement here, at least have a
good discussion about it.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
I understand it's legal to carry a firearm in there
as long as it's not concealed, right.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yes, yeah, it's a pretty big gray areas. It's technically
prohibited to carry a concealed firearm in the state capitol,
but not technically illegal. It's kep a weird gray area.
As we switched over to the Capital.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Commission, Okay, would you like to see happen?

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Well, well, obviously, and you know, as Garrett as the
buzz bus as anybody else does too, is that in
light of recent probably political you know, rhetoric and violence
and you know, animosity. You know, I think some other
measures to make sure somebody isn't carrying a firearm into
the courthouse to do harm to senator or their staff

(01:27):
or even the general public. You know, we have a
lot of fourth graders that come into that capital every year,
you know, hundreds of them, if not thousands, and so
I feel like it's also our duty to make sure
that they're feel safe in the state capitol and are safe.
And so I've worked closely with the state Patrol on this,
on this whole ordeal of making sure that we can
somehow influence some kind of measures. And so they're ecstatic

(01:50):
about the idea of even discussing the fact that we
can now have better measures to find out who's carrying
a firearm and the capital and who's not, because right
now they have no idea. They're walking around blind and
they don't know if somebody in a crowd is carrying
a firearm and somebody isn't. So, just like the majority
of other capitals in the country and almost every courthouse

(02:10):
in the state of Nebraska, we're gonna you know, explore
options well what most other government facilities have done currently,
so nothing too out of the ordinary, but also making
sure that we respected one's rights too.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
I'm probably one of the biggest pro Second Amendment senators
in the Capitol. You know. I passed you know, Second
Amendment legislation myself. I worked with Tom Brewer on you know,
concealed carry laws. I was a co sponsor of that build.
So I want to make sure we do this the
best way that we possibly can, to make sure we
respect everyone else's rights well, right.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
The sad fact is, as I think everybody knows who
pays attention, if if a maniac wants to go out
and kill people, they can get it done. And I
guess the saddest fact of all is that we've seen
more and more of that in terms of political violence
lately across the country. What is it like now to

(03:08):
be an officeholder at the state level when you have
emotions running high all the time? Does it? Does it
give you pause every day when you go to.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Work in a way, yes, you know, especially since I
would say twenty twenty three, for some reason, I don't know,
like emotion has really gotten much more embedded in politics,
people come to the capital now, you know, protesting and

(03:40):
rioting a lot more. They're up in the balconies in
the chambers while we're trying to discuss bills, throwing stuff
at us, yelling at us openly. I would have never
thought that would ever happen eight years ago when I
came here, right, And so I can only assume that
this is probably not going to slow down, and so,
you know, but I also want to make sure people

(04:02):
can be engaged in the political process and not shut
them out. It's people's house. But we also have to
make sure that somebody isn't just going to walk into
the Capitol unchecked with a firearm, walk into a center's
office and shoot their staff, to shoot the center. Yeah,
you know, I think there should be some measure to
make sure that they do not have a deadly weapon
to do harm. So I don't think it's totally unreasonable.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Right, and it would seem to me the most possibly
the most effective measure would be to make it abundantly
clear that if you come in and do that, you're
not going to leave. You're not going to leave alive.
In other words, we've got ramped up security, we've got
folks in here who will take you down if you
try that. That to me is a deterrent because the

(04:45):
fact of the matter is if they walk through the door,
they can start shooting. You know, That's just the way
it is.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, well, right now they can walk into the Capitol
and nobody's even knowing they're caring and so not even
when they start. And I think right now we have
you know, I trust the staple trol hund percent. Like
I think if somebody comes in here and and decides
to you know, cause a lot of harm or mass
violence with the firearm a weapon, the state patrol will
take them down. Yeah, I mean I have I have

(05:11):
one hundred cent of faith from that. The problem is
by then it's already too late.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
By the way, Ben, how much how much is allowed
in the balcony up there in the gallery?

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (05:21):
I mean, obviously you want people to be able to
have a voice, But but at what point are they
escorted it out?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
Well, they're escort I think they're escorted out when they
when they cause a disruption to the process, right you know,
where they're actually trying to discuss bills. So if they
up there and they're start you know, causing a rock
to start yelling at us, openly start you know, you know, uh,
interrupting that whole process. That's usually when the state patrol
comes along here and escort them out. There was there
was an instant a couple of years ago where people
actually were throwing stuff down at the senders. And there

(05:49):
have been instances of other people coming in and the
state patrols stop them because they've had stuff in their
backpacks that they were going to the balconies with a
lot of stuff. Maybe the public doesn't know about what
has the actually happened or what actually has happened. So
it's just the the the rhetoric has just escalated, I
think tremendously the last few years, and in light of

(06:11):
other political violence and Charlie Kirkins, you know, I think
it's it's not unreasonable to at least start the discussion
and look at what kind of measures we can do
that other state capitals have done.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
You ever get hit with something any flying debris ever
land on you. They were throwing tampons right, one of
the things.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, I've had actually mail sent into my office. My
staff opened it up. I wasn't there at the time
where it was.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
I know.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
It's interesting is during the I think one of the bills,
one of the amendments I introduced, we had the transgender
surgery on children and abortion and uh, somebody sent mail
to our office and my staff opened it and actually
exploded and shot confetti of let's say, uh uh you know,

(06:57):
a male anatomical you know, anominally a whole bunch of
confetti flying all over my office. And so it was
technically kind of an explosive device and they opened up
in the mail. So but no, I've had people throw
stuff at me or you know, yell at me when
I'm walking out, or followed me out to my parking
lot yelling at me as you know, people spit you know,

(07:19):
in my direction. So it's not uncommon.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
Text man, Ben, thanks for the time, all for eleven
dollars a year exactly.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yea, the big bucks. You guys say one thing too, Gary, Uh,
you know, seeking graduations in the retirement too. Oh thanks, Yeah,
you know, talking to you guys in the morning. You
guys do a great job of asking the right questions,
not plenty of punches, and being honest, not accord.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Not according to our detractors. But I do appreciate that.
Thank you so much. The Senator Ben Hanson here baby.
This morning it was