Nebraska State Patrol purchases guns from Racing & Gaming Commission (2024)

Casey Ricketts has never wanted to talk about the guns. And now that those 10 semi-automatic rifles — with a purchase price of $30,351 — have become the property of the Nebraska State Patrol, she no longer has to do so.

Ricketts no longer feels uneasy when she walks past the the double-locked evidence room at the Racing and Gaming Commission's south Lincoln office, where the guns used to be securely stashed.

They're now someone else's responsibility.

"I'm relieved," the Racing and Gaming Commission's interim executive director told the Journal Star on Thursday. "I'm ready to move forward to the next chapter."

The State Patrol took possession of the firearms earlier this month, ending a tumultuous six months that were sparked by former executive director Tom Sage's purchase of the rifles, which were described as a last-resort necessity in the event of an active shooter striking one of the state's casinos or race tracks.

In hindsight, the Racing and Gaming Commission denounced the purchase. Had Sage brought a purchase recommendation to the commission's board of directors, its chairman says, the matter likely would have been struck down resoundingly.

"I don't think there would have been any legs with that at the commission level,"said Commission Chairman Dennis Lee. "Nobody really supported it."

Sage's executive decision to buy the guns, Lee said, brought undue and unexpected attention to an agency that for years had flown below the radar.

However, the Racing and Gaming Commission has experienced dramatic growth — it went from two employees to 25 relatively overnight — in recent years with the legalization of casino gambling in Nebraska.

"Suddenly, we were in the spotlight," Lee said. "I think the guns got some media legs. It was a fairly strong negative response from the industry and the public. And the media wrote some very strong — accurate, but very strong — articles concerning the guns."

And then the Nebraska Legislature raised some concerns on the issue, as did the governor's office. By the time the story had made the rounds, the Racing and Gaming Commission was feeling the burn, Lee said.

"We needed to respond to those concerns," Lee said.

And it was under that dark cloud that Ricketts, who was brought to the Racing and Gaming Commission to become its director of compliance in October 2022, was named its interim executive director in January after Sage announced his retirement.

A former law enforcement officer, she made it clear to Sage that she never wanted the guns.

"I was never on board with them," she said. "I was vocal with the previous administration about that."

She had inherited a mess, and the commission's board of directors let her lead the process of getting out of it. As she saw it, there were three options.

First, they could have returned the guns to the dealer, but that would have resulted in a $40,000 hit — the cost of the guns plus a 30% restocking charge — to the commission.

The second way forward was to keep the guns and train Racing and Gaming inspectors to use them, which was never really an option, she said.

Option No. 3 was finding another state agency interested in buying the guns.

When she called the State Patrol in March, there was interest. A deal — at a price of $22,500, said spokesman Cody Thomas — was soon agreed upon.

The State Patrol officially took possession on May 16 after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives process was completed.

"Every NSP trooper and investigator has a rifle assigned to them, so these firearms will be placed into inventory for that assignment," Thomas said in a written statement.

With new casinos being built all over the state, Ricketts believed the money spent on guns would have been better spent on a casino licensing database.

"I wanted to focus the agency on other things," she said, pointing out that much of the licensing information was stored on a computer spreadsheet.

That worked fine with just a handful of race tracks, but the agency is embarking on a period of dramatic growth.

On May 17, Harrah's Columbus opened as Nebraska's first permanent casino structure, while casinos in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island will finish major construction projects in the fall after operating with temporary gaming operations.

The state needs to be prepared for the onslaught of license requests, Ricketts said.