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 04.20.11
ONE BILL MOVES, ONE BILL HELD OVER. |
Today, both the Senate and House Judiciary Committees were scheduled
to vote on bills that would save gun owners enormous hassles
and Oregonians millions of dollars.
The Senate Committee was, once again, due to vote on SB
934, a bill which would remove the responsibility for running
firearms background checks from the Oregon State Police and
turn those checks over to the feds, who do not charge and have
a far better track record of getting the checks done efficiently.
For the record, OFF does not support
or endorse any background checks for a number of reasons. FIrst,
we believe it is a prior restraint on your rights. Second we
do not believe it prevents bad actors from getting guns.
However, as long as we are saddled with a federal mandate to
subject ourselves to background checks, we believe we should
have the least time consuming and least expensive system we
can. RIght now, that would be the federal NICS system.
Although SB
934 has been scheduled for action for several days, it was
once again postponed. We have been told that amendments to the
bill have been drafted, but as of now, we have not been permitted
to see them. It is very likely that the amendments will completely
change the contents of the bill. Until we see the amendments
we simply do not know. However, when we see them, you will see
them.
In the House, a work session was held on a similar bill, HB
2791.
As with SB
934, this bill would end the fees and delays on background
checks by removing the State Police as the point of contact.
While more and more states who rely on local authorities have
been experiencing problems with background checks, states that
use the national NICS system have been having no problems.
The House
Judiciary Committee took testimony from the Oregon State
Police at today's work session even though OSP chose not
to comment at the public hearing where testimony is normally
taken. At that hearing, the only testimony taken against the
bill was from the public employee's union.
The OSP said that the delays dealers have been experiencing
while trying to contact them on the phone, and the surge in
delays in approvals was due to a big increase in background
check requests. Oddly, they also said that in spite of the almost
three million dollars in federal grants already received to
forward mental health records to the feds, they have not yet
done so.
While we, of course, wonder what they have been doing with the
money, we are more perplexed by the statement that they have
not shared any mental health records as required by federal
law.
To be clear, we oppose sharing that data and fought hard to
prevent Oregon from enacting a law that forced us into compliance
with the NRA-and-Brady-Campaign-backed legislation demanding
this sensitive information. But the fact is, we are now stuck
with this law and the OSP has gotten lots of money to comply.
What is particularly inexplicable is their statement that they
have shared no information with the feds, when we already know
of one person who has been denied firearms purchases because
of mental health records that the feds recently got.
What's even more troubling is that this person had already
had his rights restored by the courts! So why his private
data was shared with the feds is a mystery. Clearly, someone
is not getting his story straight.
A side note to this issue is that Psychiatric Safety Review
Board has received almost $300,000.00 to conduct gun rights
restoration hearings and so far has conducted ...none. They
have also created a resolution process so onerous, expensive
and invasive that few rational people would attempt it. When
you get a boatload of money to run a process that no one wants
to engage in, you get to keep a boatload of money.
The vote on HB
2791 had a few surprises.
(One thing that was not a surprise was when Representative
Carolyn Tomei expressed opposition to the bill because she
wanted to "keep Oregon jobs." In other words,
gun owners should pay twice in order to insure that the people
who work in the ID unit at OSP have jobs. The millions in savings
to Oregon did not impress Tomei.)
The first surprise was when
Representative Andy Olson vote no. Usually a reliable supporter
of gun rights, Olson's "no" vote was unexpected.
Mary Nolan, who
can always be counted on to vote against gun rights, regardless
of the millions in potential savings for Oregon, stated that
it was Olson's vote that convinced her to vote "no."
Representative Gene Whisnant was excused at the time of the
vote. As a supporter, his vote was crucial. (Whisnant was attending
other business and not avoiding this vote.)
In the end Representaitves Krieger,
Barker, Wand,
Hicks and Schaufler
vote yes.
A "yes" vote was a vote for gun rights and common
sense.
Tomei, Nolan
and Olson voted
no.
The deciding vote, which passed the bill, came from Representative
Chris Garrett, who said that while he expected to vote "no"
on the floor, he was casting a courtesy vote for the excused
Whisnant and voted "yes."
Ironically, a regular supporter of gun rights, Andy Olson, almost
sank this important bill, and a Democrat who often votes against
gun rights saved it.
We hope they will both reconsider their positions and vote "yes"
on the floor of the House, but there can be no denying that
it was Garrett's vote that kept this bill alive.
The bill is now scheduled to go to the full House floor, although
procedural moves could send it to another committee. But right
now we have to assume the next step is the House floor.
Please take a moment to write your own House rep and urge a
"yes" vote on HB 2791.
Your rep can be reached using this link.
A sample message follows:
___________________________________________________________
Dear Representative,
HB 2791 has been voted out of the House Judiciary Committee
and should be coming to you on the House floor soon.
This common sense bill can save Oregon millions in duplicated
services and eliminate costly delays for Oregon's law-abiding
gun owners. I strongly urge you vote yes on a bill that will
accomplish so much at no cost.
Yours,
________________________
____________________________________________________________________
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© 2000 - 2011, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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