Senate Candidate Wants ‘Preemptive’ Mental Health Checks For AR-15 Owners

The independent challenging Republican Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts called for owners of modern semiautomatic firearms to undergo a mental health evaluation every five years as a prerequisite to renew registration of the guns.

Dan Osborn, who lost to Republican Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer in the 2024 election, announced his plans to challenge Ricketts in July 2025. Osborn, who has received support from Democrats in his big to topple Ricketts according to Roll Call, suggested the measure during a town hall in June.

“I said, ‘Do you own an assault-style rifle, an AR-15, an M16, an AK-47, or anything like that?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah. I got a lot of them,’” Osborn claimed, according to the Plains Sentinel. “I said, ‘Let me ask you, would you have an issue with having to re-register those guns after taking a mental health exam—let’s say, I don’t know, just throwing a random number out there—every five years?’ He sat for a second and he said, ‘No.’”

Pro-Second Amendment organizations have opposed so-called “red flag” laws citing concerns with due process, with the National Rifle Association roasting Osborn’s proposal in a Tuesday post on X.

“Nebraska Senate candidate @osbornforne says he would support a gun registry, red flag laws, and a 5-year ‘mental evaluation’ for owners of America’s most popular gun platforms,” the pro-Second Amendment organization posted. “This radical view would grant government control over who can exercise their constitutional rights.”

“Given that there is nothing even remotely close to requirements like that in the historical tradition of gun control in this country at the time of the founding, that law would face aggressive legal challenges and should be struck down,” Second Amendment Foundation Senior Director of Legal Operations William Sack told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The entire premise of fundamental rights is that you don’t have the burden of proof to prove to the government when you get to continue to exercise them.”

“Dan Osborn is pushing the agenda of his liberal donors. He wants to force law-abiding citizens to submit to government mental health exams just to keep firearms they already legally own,” Ricketts said in a statement to the DCNF. “This is an extreme position even among gun control activists. As senator, I’ll always defend Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

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