NOTE: AS OF 4.48 PM SB 1551 has been removed from the hearing schedule on Feb 8. Work sessions for SB 1550 and SB 1574 have been added for Feb. 13.
The House Judiciary Committee today heard HB 4045. No action was taken.
This is Representative Kim Thatcher’s bill to protect the privacy of CHL holders and an issue she has been working on for gun owners for some time.
Representative Thatcher suggested an amendment to mollify the Oregon State Police and the Oregon Judicial Department who suddenly (after years of this concept being discussed) decided that it might be a burden on them to comply. But that’s not why no action was taken on the bill today.
The reason no action was taken was the 10 or so anonymous amendments that got walked through the door at the last minute. While no one took “credit” for them, it isn’t hard to imagine whose idea they were. (Someone certainly kept the bill writers down in Legislative Counsel busy.)
The purpose of the amendments is to ban concealed carry in public buildings and schools, or require CHL holders to give up privacy should they ever need to go into one of the buildings their tax dollars pay for. One requires that CHL holders call or email any school they will be going to 24 hours before they go to announce that they will be carrying a firearm!
Let’s see, who could have requested these amendments?
The committee has scheduled another hearing and possible work session on Wednesday at 8AM. It is essential that they hear from you that you want a clean bill with NO anti-gun amendments. You can use this link to contact the House Judiciary Committee with a simple message of “NO ANTI-GUN AMENDMENTS TO HB 4045!”
Also on Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be hearing three gun bills. We told you about these bills on Feb. 3.
Two of the bills are open attacks on your freedom. (It’s interesting that we have legislators who feel that it is their life’s work to assault your liberties instead of protecting them.) SB 1550 and SB 1551 are nothing more than an effort to demonize people who lawfully carry firearms for defense of themselves and others. Now their sponsor, Ginny Burdick, and the Chair of Senate Judiciary, Floyd Prozanski, are working to make sure that you cannot have a firearm on school property or in any public building.
Please use the contact info in this alert to remind members of the committee that you are watching them.
The other bill that will be heard on Wednesday in Senate Judiciary is Floyd Prozanski’s “Reciprocity” bill. This bill, SB 1574, is a convoluted, complicated and very flawed bill that will allow the State Police to decide if they want to recognize any other state’s CHL. But only if the other state recognizes ours first. The State Police are a law enforcement body, not a judicial body. This should not be their decision. When they had this authority in the past, they refused to recognize a single other state.
Efforts in the past to move a clean, simple, easy-to-understand bill were thwarted by the sponsor of this bill.
It’s interesting to note that in a mass email sent from Floyd Prozanski to gun owners on August 24th of 2011, Prozanski attacked Oregon Firearms Federation and said:
“Kevin continues to provide you with misinformation and has lost credibility with many legislators. I suggest you consider getting the facts from another gun rights organization. The NRA and the Oregon Gun Owners are two respected advocacy groups that will provide you with actual facts and that work positively with legislators. Those groups are known to advocate effectively for gun rights in Oregon.”
Please note that “Oregon Gun Owners” works for gun control and has endorsed Floyd Prozanski. So we don’t recommend them as a source for pro-gun information. But what of the NRA? Well, we are happy to say that we agree in this case with Floyd’s suggestion that you consider the NRA’s position. The NRA has come out in opposition to Floyd’s “reciprocity” bill. As a result Floyd has attempted to mischaracterize their position on the bill. But, that’s Floyd.
We have already asked you to take the time to contact the Senate Judiciary Committee in this alert and oppose the Burdick Bills. We strongly suggest that if you have not, you take a moment to do so and if you have, do so again.
It’s important to understand that on Wednesday, Floyd will be hearing his bill which supposedly allows some states’ CHL holders to carry in Oregon, including in public buildings. At the same time he will be hearing bills that forbid CHL holders from carrying in public buildings! We don’t expect legislators to write their own bills, but it would be great if they at least read them!
Clearly this makes no sense and our already confusing and contradictory gun laws will get much worse if these bills pass.
Finally, as we told you we would do, we hand delivered to the two Republican Senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee a simple suggested amendment designed to address the issue of residents’ of other states carrying in Oregon.
While Burdick claims that Oregon CHL holders are not well trained enough to be in public buildings, Prozanski claims that other states don’t have our stringent training requirements. (I guess they don’t talk to each other.) So we suggested a simple amendment to Floyd’s so called “reciprocity” bill. It makes a very minor change in statute and simply says that a person from any state, not just adjoining states, can apply for an Oregon CHL.
This is an easy way to put the anti-gunners on record, whether the amendment is adopted or not.
Please contact the Republican members of the Senate Judiciary and ask them to propose the amendment.
Senator Jeff Kruse
sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us
503-986-1701
Senator Doug Whitsett
sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us
503-986-1728
Suggested cut and paste message:
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Dear Senator,
SB 1574 is a complicated and poorly drafted bill. However, it could be significantly better if an amendment were adopted that simply allowed residents of any other state to apply for an Oregon CHL. Please consider proposing an amendment that would do this.
Thank you,
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