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 05.18.11
The Games Continue. |
Yesterday's
hearing on HB
2791 was as illuminating as it was frustrating.
HB 2791 removes the Oregon State Police as the point of contact
for gun purchase background checks. Under 2791, the State Police
would be replaced by the National Instant Check System.
35 states contact the Feds directly for these checks and buyers
pay no fee for the "service." In Oregon, when a purchase
is initiated, the dealer contacts the OSP who call NICS and
then OSP charges a $10.00 fee.
In the last 6 months or so, gun dealers in Oregon have had serious
difficulty conducting these checks due to long delays when attempting
to contact OSP. Even after finally getting an operator on the
phone, the wait times can be onerous. The incidence of "pended"
or delayed approvals has spiked as well. Many people have reported
that they could make a purchase one day and be delayed the next.
People with long histories of problem-free gun buys, have suddenly
faced delays, sometimes for months.
HB 2791 would solve this problem by removing the middleman and
simply going directly to the NICS system where no similar problems
have been reported. In fact, the National Shooting Sports Foundation,
which represents gun dealers, has informed us that NICS has
an excellent track record of rapid approvals and the only states
having problems are ones which, like Oregon, use local "points
of contact."
At the hearing, Representative Greg Smith (who did an excellent
job) questioned the State Police ID Unit Director who testified
that gun purchase background checks subsidized many other types
of checks that OSP conducts for free.
The Director, David Yandell, also testified that the ID Unit
was experiencing difficulties completing background checks,
but hoped things would improve. He noted that the unit plans
to soon have an electronic check system that would allow dealers
to conduct the checks themselves online. He also testified that
even if this "new and improved" system became functional,
reducing the need for staff time, that it was their intention
to still seek the higher fee per check that they have requested.
The current fee is $10.00. The State Police want to almost triple
that to $26.00.
As expected, "Cease fire Oregon" came to oppose the
bill with borderline
hysterical testimony and invented statistics. More interestingly,
a representative for the public employees unions came to oppose
the bill on the grounds that several union jobs would be lost
if the Feds took over the checks. Her position was that this
bill would devastate Oregon's economy because a handful of state
workers would not longer be able to pay taxes after losing their
jobs.
This is a fascinating premise. By her reasoning, Oregon could
solve all its economic problems by hiring everyone in the state.
Those people would then pay taxes and Oregon would be flush.
The magnitude of economic illiteracy out there is staggering.
Oddly, the public employees representative did not question
whether the new "electronic" check would cost any
jobs. None of the committee members asked about that either.
Senator Rod Monroe seemed primarily interested in not losing
any state jobs, but most committee members appeared to get the
point that Oregonians should not be paying twice for the same
"service," a process they never asked for which is
being provided so poorly.
Now the bad news. The hearing was only one step. The bill cannot
move without a "work session" and we have been reliably
informed that the Democrats will be resisting such action. Apparently,
saving millions of dollars of taxpayer money and endless headaches
is less important than losing a single public employee job.
So there is strong reason to suspect that the leadership in
the Senate Democrat Caucus will be doing what they can (which
is a lot) to stop progress on this bill. It's by no means dead,
but it is clearly in the cross hairs of the Democrat Leadership.
By simply taking no further action on the bill, it will die,
you will continue to face hassles and expense at the hands of
the OSP, and "no one" will be to blame because no
one had to vote.
Over in Senate Judiciary, Senator
Floyd Prozanski, with the full support of Senate President
Peter
Courtney, is continuing to hold up any progress on House
Bills 2787,
2792
and 2797.
If he has not chosen a date to have work sessions on these bills
by Monday, May 23rd, they will all be dead unless some legislator
steps up and moves that they be removed from his committee.
So time is running out.
Based on previous testimony and Prozanski's
own comments, we are confident that the Senator will make some
attempt to turn one of these good bills into a Frankenstein
monster of an anti-gun bill. Almost certainly it will be HB
2797 which only seeks to clarify firearms carry on motorcycles,
snowmobiles and ATV's. Expect this bill to be stuffed with language
to ban guns on any school property along with lots of potential
other amendments. Prozanski also wanted to change the rules
about the restoration of felons' gun rights. Having failed to
make his own bill go anywhere, he could well add that language
to any gut-and-stuff amendments to HB 2797.
We believe that it is unlikely (but by no means impossible)
that Prozanski
can pass a "no guns in schools" bill, however what
he can do, and clearly is trying to do, is torpedo every bill
that can in any way be perceived as "pro-gun."
In the case of HB 2797 this is particularly troubling. All that
bill does is fix a legislative screw-up from 2009. It merely
provides guidance so people can avoid running afoul of the law.
So Prozanski
and Courtney's
actions here are particularly reprehensible.
No doubt both will be cheered by the Supreme Court's recent
decision to further eviscerate the US Constitution.
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