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4.15.11 UPDATE ON SENATE GUN BILLS |
Today is the day Americans usually get to feel good about America
by making their patriotic contributions to our friends at the
Internal Revenue Service. This year we get a few more days to
bask in that patriotic glow while writing checks to fund the
activities of the Obama Administration.
Three senate bills were scheduled for action yesterday in the
Senate Judiciary Committee. They were SB 934, SB 762 and SB
582.
In order, the bills did the following:
SB
934 Removes Department of State Police as designated
state point of contact for purposes of National Instant Criminal
Background Check System. Requires gun dealer to obtain authorization
to transfer firearm directly from system.
Sends background checks back to the Feds.
SB
762 Allows persons convicted of felony to petition
for restoration of firearm rights not sooner than 10 years after
date of conviction or date person completes sentence, whichever
is later.
Reverses the gains we made in 2009 and
greatly restricts the ability of people to petition for firearms
rights restoration.
SB 582
Prohibits public body from releasing information that identifies
holder of or applicant for concealed handgun license.
CHL privacy bill much like the one that has
already passed in the House.
We support 934 and 582 and oppose 762.
You may recall that SB 582 received a hearing and was then scheduled
for a work session. The day of the scheduled work session we
were informed that the bill would not, in fact, receive consideration
and was dead. Then it was resurrected with another scheduled
work session yesterday. Once again however, no action
was taken on it.
Similarly, no action was taken on SB 762, an anti-gun bill and
the source of a lot of confusion.
We have been told that bill will not move forward.
We have also been told that SB 582, the privacy bill, will not
move forward. But nothing is ever as simple as it sounds.
Testimony was taken on SB
934 but that may very well have been no more than a formality.
The work session for that bill is scheduled for next Monday,
and it could very well be "worked" into something
unrecognizable. We believe that bill will be used as a vehicle
to be amended to include many other concepts than simply ending
OSP background checks for dealer sales. It is possible that
it won't even contain that language.
Language from the two bills not dealt with yesterday could
be incorporated as could almost anything else, even, for example,
a ban on guns on school property. Since the public is not allowed
to see the proposed amendments we will have to wait until Monday
to update you on what this bill will become. Lately, even people
in the hearing room often don't get to see the proposed amendments
and we sometimes don't know what they are until after they have
been adopted. This is part of the legislature's brilliant new
"paperless" policy. The effect of this policy is to
keep the public, and often many legislators, in the dark about
what is happening to bills.
It is our expectation that CHL privacy will be used as a bargaining
chip to get some anti-gun language into a bill. We will, of
course, oppose any efforts to water down gun rights.
The House version of SB 934 (the background check bill) is HB
2791 and that bill is scheduled for a hearing next Tuesday
in the House
Judiciary Committee. We believe we have the votes to get
that bill out of committee, but it never hurts to contact the
members and voice your support.
During testimony yesterday on SB 934, "Ceasefire Oregon"
testified that the huge spike in delays and the trouble dealers
are having getting through to the OSP are proof that the system
is working. We look forward to more comical testimony on the
house bill.
The key to all these bills is still Senator
Floyd Prozanski, the Chair of Senate Judiciary. He controls
the background
check bill, the
privacy bill, the recognition
bill and the motorcycle
/atv bill. Please continue to remind him that gun rights
matter to you.
We'll keep you posted.
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© 2000 - 2011, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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