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03.09.11 GUN BILLS IN MOTION. WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. |
Three
pro-gun bills saw action yesterday. We need your help to assure
that they continue to move through the process.
All three were in the House Judiciary Committee. Two bills were
the subject of a "work session" meaning they were
voted on in committee (and possibly amended) and one received
a public hearing where testimony was taken.
The two bills which were passed out of committee to the full
House floor were HB
2787 and HB
2792.
HB 2787 is the House version of a bill that
protects the privacy of concealed handgun license holders. A
similar bill has been heard in the Senate and is scheduled to
receive a work session on March 14th.
This common sense legislation is the work of House Rep Kim
Thatcher, at our request, and is a long overdue recognition
that the personal information of CHL holders should not be available
to newspapers or people running marketing
campaigns.
In 2009, this bill was shot down through the actions of House
Rep Judy Stiegler of Bend. Oddly, during the work session
on this bill, Stiegler was lurking in the audience.
The reason this was odd is, because of the actions of gun owners,
Steigler was "retired" from public office in the last
election. She has now returned to "private practice"
and is not a legislator.
Any reasonable observer would have concluded that Steigler's
presence should have served as a reminder to other legislators
that making a career out of gun control is not a good way to
get re-elected outside of the most knee-jerk, liberal districts
in this state. But, three members of the committee chose anti-gun
zealotry over experience and voted to keep your private information
available to any vulture who wanted it. They were Chris
Garrett, Mary
Nolan and Carolyn
Tomei.
Fortunately, the committee has enough members who recognize
how foolish and dangerous handing out private info to anyone
is, and the bill passed out of committee.
HB 2792 recognizes other states' handgun permits
which will help Oregonians by having our permits accepted in
more states. This would bring Oregon in line with most states
which accept many permits. Oregon accepts only Oregon permits
and does not even allow non-residents to apply for one unless
they live in an adjoining state.
Once again, Garrett, Nolan and Tomei voted "NO" for
gun rights, but were overruled by the majority of the committee
and the bill passed out to the floor.
There was an amendment added to 2792, and while it did not hurt
the bill, it did demonstrate how far we are from a "transparent"
process.
At "work sessions" public testimony is typically
NOT taken. That usually has already happened at the hearing.
But at work sessions, amendments can be adopted that the public
does not get to see until after they have been approved
and made part of the bill. In this case, even the people in
the room, including the bill's sponsor, Kim Thatcher, had no
idea what was in the amendments that were approved until after
the bill was voted to the floor. While the amendments in question
do not appear to be a problem, it is an indication of something
very wrong with the system. Your CHL info is public, but changes
made to proposed legislation are secret.
Finally, a public hearing was held on HB
2797. This bill defines a lawful way to transport a handgun
on a motorcycle and clarifies language dealing with firearms
on ATV's and snowmobiles. We thank our friends from the motorcycle
community for showing up to support this bill. It is scheduled
to be in work session on March 16h.
We now need to take action on the two bills that moved out of
committee. Please contact your own rep and ask them to support
HB 2792 and HB 2787 when they are heard on the House Floor.
If you don't know who your House Rep is, you can find
them here.
They will be the LAST person listed. You can send a message
to your rep even if you don't know who they are here.
Remember, for this bill you want to contact your Oregon
House Rep. We will deal with Senators later.
A sample message follows.
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Representative,
The House Judiciary Committee has passed out two bills to protect
the rights of gun owners.
They are HB 2787 and HB 2792.
2787 protects sensitive private information about concealed
handgun license holders and 2792 expands Oregonian's rights
by recognizing the handgun permits of other states. I
urge you to support both bills.
Yours,
____________________
___________________________________________________________________
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