Nebraska prohibits any person from possessing a firearm in a school, on school grounds, in a school-owned vehicle, or at a school-sponsored activity or athletic event.¹ “School” means a public, private, denominational, or parochial elementary, vocational, or secondary school, a private postsecondary career school, a community college, a public or private college, a junior college, or a university.²

Exceptions include:

• Law enforcement and qualified retired law enforcement officers;
• Those authorized by a school governing body to carry firearms in a security capacity pursuant to a written policy;
• Firearms which may lawfully be possessed by the person receiving instruction, for instruction under the immediate supervision of an adult instructor;
• Firearms which may lawfully be possessed by a member of a college or university rifle team, within the scope of such person’s duties as a member of the team;
• Firearms which may lawfully be possessed by a person employed by a college or university in this state as part of an agriculture or a natural resources program of such college or university, within the scope of such person’s employment;
• Firearms contained within a private vehicle operated by a nonstudent adult which are not loaded and: a) are encased; or b) are in a locked firearm rack that is on a motor vehicle; or
• A handgun carried as a concealed handgun by a valid holder of a state permit while in a vehicle or on his or her person while riding in or on a vehicle into or onto any parking area, which is open to the public and used by a school if, prior to exiting the vehicle, the handgun is locked inside the glove box, trunk, or other compartment of the vehicle, a storage box securely attached to the vehicle, or, if the vehicle is a motorcycle, a hardened compartment securely attached to the motorcycle while the vehicle is in or on such parking area.³

In Nebraska, schools must expel for a period of not less than one year any student who knowingly and intentionally possessed, used or transmitted a firearm on school grounds, in a vehicle owned, leased, or contracted by a school being used for a school purpose, or in a vehicle being driven for a school purpose by a school employee or his or her designee, or at a school-sponsored activity or athletic event.⁴

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1. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1204.04(1).[↩]
2. Neb. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 28-1201(8).[↩]
3. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1204.04(1).[↩]
4. Neb. Rev. Stat. § 79-263(1).[↩]