01.23.14 Gun Bills Officially Posted

Two gun related bills were officially posted on the Oregon Legislative website today.One is the “bill” version of Floyd Prozanski’s gun registration expansion legislation which we had seen as “Legislative Concept 154”. It is now an official Senate Bill, SB 1551.As you will see, it has been introduced as a “committee bill” because Prozanski wants to attack your rights, but lacks the courage to put his name on the bill. But make no mistake, it’s his bill.  While there is little doubt he introduced it to further the agenda of Senator Ginny Burdick, he is the committee chair, he requested the bill and we are going to make sure he takes ownership of it.The other gun bill that was introduced today is HB 4068.  This bill, while far from perfect, is well intentioned.

Its purpose is to allow people who have had convictions for small amounts of marijuana in other states, or persons who had those convictions in Oregon before the law reduced the penalties for possession of  small amounts of marijuana, to apply for Oregon CHL’s.Currently persons who had convictions in Oregon and after 1973  may apply for CHL’s but persons whose convictions were from other states or who were convicted before July 22, 1973 can not.We think this bill could be improved. A bill with the same intention was introduced last session by House Rep Kim Thatcher and was somewhat better.  We’ll work to make this bill better but in any event support its intent.Floyd’s gun registration bill is still the biggest danger so we urge you to keep the pressure on to kill it. The bill will go to the Senate Judiciary Committee, so please use the contact info and suggested message below to let them know how much you oppose this dangerous legislation.You can track all gun bills here.

Thank you for your activism.

Contact info for the entire Senate Judiciary Committee is here.

Individual contact info and a sample message follow:

Senator Floyd Prozanski
Democrat – District 4 – South Lane and North Douglas Counties
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1704   District Phone: 541-342-2447
Email: Sen.FloydProzanski@state.or.us

Senator Betsy Close
Republican – District 8 – Albany
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1708
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-303, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Sen.BetsyClose@state.or.us

Senator Michael Dembrow
Democrat – District 23 – Portland
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1723    District Phone: 503-281-0608
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-407, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Sen.MichaelDembrow@state.or.us

Senator Jeff Kruse
Republican – District 1 – Roseburg
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1701   District Phone: 541-580-3276
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-315, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Sen.JeffKruse@state.or.us

Senator Arnie Roblan
Democrat – District 5 – Coos Bay
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1705
Capitol Address: 900 Court St. NE, S-417, Salem, Oregon 97301
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us

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Dear Senator,

SB 1551 is one of the most poorly crafted pieces of legislation I have ever seen.

Under this bill an uncle can give a gun to his nephew but the nephew cannot return it without subjecting his uncle to a background check!

Under this bill I could not give a hunting rifle to my own father-in-law!

If my gun club allows someone taking a safety class to use one of our club owned guns, we’d be required to run a background check on the student and transfer the gun for the duration of the class. The student would then have to do the same to return it!  This is lunacy.

Vote against any restrictions on private transfers.

Yours,