Author: OFF

ANTI-GUN BILL SCHEDULED FOR VOTE TOMORROW

On Monday, June 27th,the Oregon House is scheduled to vote on HB 2792. (That does not mean it will actually be voted on. Anything can happen.)

In its original form, as introduced by House Rep and pro-liberty heroine, Kim Thatcher, the bill would have recognized the concealed handgun licenses of other states. Now all its original language has been stripped out and it bears no resemblance to the bill as introduced.

After the bill was “gut and stuffed” by Senator Floyd Prozanski, the Senate passed it but the House refused to agree to the new and now unrecognizable bill. So a “conference committee” was appointed to iron out the differences.

The conference committee agreed to all the changes the House refused to agree to with one minor and meaningless change.

This mangled bill is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow on the House floor.

In its current form the bill does provide the language we asked for to define how a handgun could be lawfully carried on a snowmobile, ATV or motorcycle, but in exchange for adding that language (which was stripped from a bill which would have addressed that issue alone) Prozanski added the poison bill he promised at the beginning of the session. He added language which hopelessly muddles and complicates the current law dealing with how a person can get seek rights restoration if they had a very old felony conviction.

Since the beginning of 2010, people with felony convictions could appeal to a court and request rights restoration. If they could convince the court that they were now upstanding citizens and no threat, they could have their rights to own a gun restored if the court agreed.

Frankly, the new law has worked well. Dangerous people have neither sought nor received rights restoration and people who made a dumb mistake 30 years ago, and have since been productive members of society, had the opportunity to make a case for themselves.

Now, that is in jeopardy of disappearing. The gut and stuffed version of HB 2792 will make the rights restoration process as much of a mess has HB 2853 did in 2009.

As much as we want our motorcycle language to become law, and as much as sportsmen and motorcycle riders deserve to have clear laws, we think adding this poison bill is a mistake. We regret that the Republicans on the conference committee agreed to it. Please consider contacting your House Rep and telling them that HB 2792 is a dangerous and counterproductive  capitulation. Thanks for your activism.

HB 2792  was supposed to be a bill that recognized other state’s concealed handgun licenses.

After passing the House by a wide margin it was sent to the Senate where Senate Judiciary Chairman Floyd Prozanski “gut and stuffed” it so it was no longer recognizable.

Now, while the bill does contain language we sought to clarify the lawful carry of firearms on motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATV’s it also contains complex and vague language creating new restrictions on persons attempting to get their firearm’s rights restored.

Today the bill went to a “Conference Committee” to iron out differences between the House and Senate.

The committee members from the Senate side were Floyd Prozanski, Jackie Dingfelder and Doug Whitsett. The House members were Wayne Krieger and Jeff Barker. The entire committee voted unanimously to accept the “gut and stuffed” Senate version of the bill with one meaningless amendment. The amendment changes from three to one year, the amount of time that must transpire before those who may still apply for rights restoration must wait after leaving prison. No one from the “pro-gun” side offered substantive pro-gun amendments.

We have no idea why the committee felt the need to make this change. While we have no objection to it, it serves no purpose, something we have repeatedly pointed out to committee members. Federal law still forbids anyone with a felony record from having his rights restored in Oregon for 15 years. So the amendment was a meaningless gesture that benefits no one.

So now, with the help of the House members of the conference committee, and the Republican Senate member, a message has been sent to Senator Prozanski that he can mangle or simply kill pro-gun bills with impunity.

Much will be said by legislators about the need to not “arm felons.”  Many who supported the original bill that had no language about rights restoration,are fearful that this will become a campaign issue. But there are two important points to keep in mind. In 2009, the bill that allowed felons to seek rights restoration was drafted by Floyd Prozanski and it passed both Houses with no opposition. So “arming felons” was actually done in 2009, and no one lost a re-election campaign as a result. It’s a bogus issue.

Secondly, in spite of the “sky is falling” rhetoric by Prozanski, the law is working. Murderers and rapists are neither seeking nor receiving gun rights restoration. There simply is not a problem.

Before the law was changed in 2009 it was clear that many in the legislature were confused about what existing law said.   It soon became clear that many were confused about what the correcting legislation did. In 2010, when Floyd Prozanski introduced legislation to reverse what he wrote in 2009 it was clear he did not understand what his new bill said. Now we have a cluttered, unneeded and confusing bill that accomplishes little and is likely to be misunderstood by most,

And every single word about recognizing other states’s license is gone.

Today, Prozanski also led the floor debate to kill SB 347. 347 would have protected the privacy of  CHL holders and victims of domestic violence.  Prozanski and fellow  Democrats voted to throw domestic violence victims under the bus just to make sure CHL holders got no protection.On this vote, a “nay” is a pro-gun vote.

As a result of that vote, 347 must be assigned to a conference committee of the type that just sold out to the anti-gunners in the Senate.

So while SB 347 awaits a conference committee, HB 2792 will go back to both Houses for a vote on whether to agree with the conference committee’s decision to go along with all the “gut and stuff” language added into it in the Senate.

We strongly urge you to contact both your House Rep and your State Senator and urge them to vote “No” on HB 2792 when it comes back to them. The bill no longer protects visitors to our state, is confusing and unneeded.  You can reach both your House Rep and your State Senator here.

Please tell them that while you strongly supported the original bill, you cannot support a bill that has been used by anti-gunners to promote their own agenda.

The 2011 Legislative session is nearing an end. Some say it may happen as soon as this coming week. Because of the confusing nature of the way gun bills were dealt with, we will try to provide a summary of where we are now.

Although quite a few gun bills, both good and bad, were introduced, only a few saw any action.

Here is a brief overview of the status of the bills that were at least considered.

HB 2787 would have protected the privacy of concealed handgun license holders. The bill passed by a wide margin in the House. When it was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chairman Floyd Prozanski scheduled it for a hearing and then refused to hear it. It is now dead.

The House Republicans added CHL privacy language to SB 347, which protects the privacy of domestic violence victims, and passed it. It went back to the Senate for concurrence and we have good reason to believe Senate President Peter Courtney will not allow it to pass with the CHL privacy language in it. When the CHL privacy language was added, militant anti-gunners worked against the bill. They wanted protections for domestic violence victims, but not if those victims took any action to protect themselves. Privacy for CHL holders is almost certainly dead this session. Miracles do happen, but that’s almost what it would take at this point.

We can only speculate on the motivations of the people who are determined to make public the private, sensitive information of CHL holders. Their stated reasons are nonsensical. But, since they are convinced that centralized, public databases of personal info are a good idea, we’ve created one ourselves. As public figures, we’re sure they would approve.

HB 2791 would have replaced our current system of gun purchase background checks. Our checks are done by the Oregon State Police, cost $10.00, and are frequently mishandled, causing countless unjustified delays. 2791 would have turned this job over to the Federal NICS system which does not charge a fee, does not retain info on the gun purchased (unlike the OSP) and has had virtually no problems in the states that use it. (Yes, odd for a Federal program, but true.)

That bill passed out of the House Judiciary Committee and was sent to the Ways and Means Committee. A hearing was held there. After testimony by public employees (who took the position that if a few civilian employees of the State Police lost their jobs because the Feds would do most background checks, the Oregon economy would collapse), that bill was left there to die. While not officially dead until the session ends, its chances of survival are almost zero. Oregonians will continue to spend millions on background checks from an agency that has admitted that it is not getting the job done.

HB 2797 was supposed to define how you could lawfully transport a handgun on a motorcycle, snowmobile or ATV.  It passed with no opposition in the House. It too was sent to Prozanski’s committee, where Prozanski added a few other elements. He took the language he said he would not consider in the CHL privacy bill and slipped that in there, which might seem good except that he also added language banning guns in all public schools and colleges and he added new restrictions on those seeking to get their rights restored if they had a felony conviction. Basically he created a whole class of people who could never even ask to get their rights restored. Prozanski never provided a single example of a dangerous felon seeking rights restoration under the current law, which is working quite well. He did accuse us of wanting to arm “murderers and rapists” but never mentioned that he was responsible for the change in the law in 2009 that allowed ex-felons to petition the court for rights restoration. That bill passed out of his committee, and although it was an awful bill, had it gone to the floor for a vote, we would have a record of where Senators stood on your rights and we could have killed it later in the House. But Senate President Peter Courtney, being just a bit wiser than Prozanski, instead sent the bill to Senate Rules Committee for no reason other than to assure it would quietly die and no Senate Democrats would be on record. Gamesmanship to be sure, but evidence of Courtney’s political acumen. He’s not ethical, but he is skilled.

HB 2792 started as a bill to recognize other states’ handgun licenses. After passing the House by a wide margin, it too was sent to Floyd Prozanski’s committee. There, he stripped out all the recognition language and replaced it with the language from HB 2797 dealing with motorcycles, snowmobiles, and ATV’s. Once again, that sounds good, but he added his favorite poison pill, new restrictions on rights restoration.

That bill passed out of his committee with the support of both Republicans(Jeff Kruse and Doug Whitsett) and was sent to the Senate floor where it passed with only one “no” vote, from Senator Larry George. We were informed by one Republican Senator that the GOP caucus had no discussions about the bill at all, so many of them probably had no idea what they were voting on.

When that bill came back to the House for concurrence, the House refused to agree to the Senate amendments. So as of Friday, June 17, the bill was headed for a conference committee.

Prozanski desperately wants to end the possibility of rights restoration for a whole class of people, in spite of the fact that there is no evidence that dangerous people are either asking for or receiving gun rights back. The Republicans will be in a difficult political position because if they remove the bad language from the bill, Prozanski and other Democrats will claim (as they have of us,) that Republicans support “arming murderers and rapists.” There will be great political pressure to cave at least partially to the Democrats.

We are close to the end of this session. Don’t feel lonely if you’ve been confused by the paths these bills have taken. We’ll keep you updated and it will all be over soon, for better or worse.

House Bill 2792 started as a bill to recognize other states’ handgun permits and passed the House by a wide margin.

The bill was then sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where all the recognition language was removed. In its place the Senate Committee inserted language dealing with possessing firearms on motorcycles, snowmobiles, and ATV’s. This language had been taken from another bill.

Oddly, instead of just passing HB 2797 (the original motorcycle bill) as written, they “gut and stuffed” HB 2792 with this language. However, in addition to the motorcycle language, which is good and needed, Floyd Prozanski also included language to restrict the ability of persons with felony convictions to seek gun rights restoration.

Since 2009, when Prozanski drafted legislation to allow those people to petition the courts for rights restoration (a bill that passed both Houses without a single “no” vote), he has been trying to reverse his own bill.

The current law is working. Contrary to what Prozanski has implied in mass mailings and newspaper editorials, the courts are not returning gun rights to “murderers and rapists.” All the 2009 law does is make the process make sense. Prior to 2009 the law allowed someone to ask the courts to get his rights restored to buy a gun, but he still could not own it. It was absurd.

In 2009, we fixed this error, and in spite of universal support by both Houses, Prozanski has been trying to reverse his own legislation ever since.

HB 2792 was “gut and stuffed” to institute new and totally unneeded restrictions on the process.

Today, when the bill went back to the House for concurrence, the House refused to concur. This means that a “conference committee” must be appointed to resolve the differences.

Thus, there is still a possibility that this bill can be saved, if the conference committee strips out all the bad rights restoration language and just keeps the motorcycle language. But the reality is that politicians, no matter how good they are, are still afraid of what will happen at election time.  Any legislator who takes the tough position of demanding that the bad language should be removed will no doubt face the kind of false and defamatory accusations that we have about “arming murders and rapists.”

So far, Prozanski has successfully ruined or killed every good gun bill that came his way. It is very important that the members of the House not allow him to continue destroying good legislation instead of simply moving his own bills to advance his agenda. Please contact Speaker Bruce Hanna and ask that he use his position to ensure that HB 2792 do no more than clarify motorcycle, snowmobile and ATV rules.

Contact Info and sample message for Speaker Hanna follow.

Representative Bruce L Hanna
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1200
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, 269, Salem, OR, 97301
Email: rep.brucehanna@state.or.us

_________________________________________________________

Dear Speaker Hanna,

As you know, HB 2792 was “gut and stuffed” in Senate Judiciary and no longer resembles its original intent.

This was the fate of every pro-gun bill that made it out of the House and was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. As you also know, the House has refused to concur in the changes made in the Senate.

As the conference committee considers this bill, I strongly urge you to salvage the good language dealing with motorcycles, snowmobiles, and ATV’s, and remove the unneeded and counterproductive language dealing with gun rights restoration. The current law is working as it should. Please do not allow the false allegations about “arming murderers and rapists” to become a political weapon. Please use your influence to save what we can of this badly battered bill.

Sincerely yours,

___________________

__________________________________________________________

House Bill 2792, which passed the House with 40 votes, started life as a bill that recognized other states’ concealed handgun licenses.

After passing in the House, it was sent to Floyd Prozanski’s Senate Judiciary Committee where he stripped out all the language dealing with recognition and replaced it with language dealing with a lawful way to transport handguns on motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATVs. The bill which originally contained that language was gutted and turned into a bill to ban licensed carry on school property, including colleges.

The new “stuffed” version of 2792 also includes dramatic new restrictions on restoration of gun rights by persons with felony convictions.

Only Senator Larry George voted “no” on 2792. We commend him.

While we support (and in fact wrote) the language on transport, we believe that the new restrictions on rights restoration is unwise, unneeded and counterproductive.

The bill now goes back to the House for a vote on concurring with Prozanski’s amendments. Please contact your House Rep and urge that they not concur with the Senate amendments.

They still have the opportunity to take the bill to a conference committee and strip out the bad parts of the gutted bill and only leave the good parts.

You can use the following link to write to your House Rep.

Remember, the person you want to contact is your State House Rep.

Today the Oregon House passed SB 347. This bill protects the privacy of certain domestic violence victims.  After passing the Senate, the House Judiciary Committee added protections for persons who had, or applied for, a concealed handgun license.

As you know, the House had previously passed, by a large margin, a bill to protect CHL privacy. That bill was killed in the Senate by Floyd Prozanski who would not even allow discussion of the bill in committee.

When 347 came to the House, the House Judiciary Committee wisely added the CHL protections with the obvious reasoning that it made little sense to protect domestic violence victims unless they had taken steps to protect themselves, at which point their private, sensitive information would once again be made public.

As you might expect, the more militant haters of self-reliance were so horrified by the idea that CHL holders might be afforded some protections, that they actually voted against protections for domestic violence victims because they so objected to any protections for CHL holders.

This bill will now have to go back to the Senate for concurrence on the changes. We are going to go way out on a limb here and predict that the anti-gun zealots in the Senate will not concur and this bill will be dead.

On another note, HB 2792, another pro-gun bill that was “gut and stuffed” by Prozanski is due for a vote on the Senate floor on Wednesday.

To see who hates gun owners so much that they are willing to vote against the victims of domestic violence, view the vote count on SB 347 here.

A Response To Floyd Prozanski’s Email. If You Are Taking Flak, You  Must Be Over The Target.

As you can see here, Senator Floyd Prozanski has sent a mass email defending his record on gun rights and attacking OFF and me, Kevin Starrett, OFF’s director.  Here is my response.

Floyd starts by defending the gut and stuff he did to HB 2797, a bill intended to clarify lawful carry of firearms on motorcycles, ATVs and snowmobiles.

We should point out that early in the session we were warned that Prozanski planned to insert poison pills in any pro-gun legislation that came to his committee. In this case, he took a bill that was intended to do no more than fix a previous mistake (the dropping of the motorcycle language in SB 603 from 2009) and added Ginny Burdick’s favorite fantasy, disarming law-abiding Oregonians in schools, including on college campuses.

Now it’s interesting to note that while Prozanski claimed I used “scare tactics” to oppose this bill and that I am more interested in “drumming up utions” he neglected to provide a single example of why disarming the innocent while doing nothing to stop criminals makes the slightest sense. Nor did he provide an explanation for why he thinks CHL holders suddenly become irresponsible or crazy when they step onto school property.

As for “drumming up utions”, as far as I can tell, not one alert dealing with Prozanski’s gutting of bills asked for a dime.

It’s not uncommon for those who hate gun owners and liberty to claim that OFF’s motive is to get rich. But many of you know me, and for those who see what I drive to the Capitol to interface with people like Floyd, it should be obvious that getting rich is not my motivation.

Prozanski states that I have “testified that I believe all felons including murderers and rapists should be able to petition the court to restore their gun rights.”  Actually Floyd, the truth is, I think murderers and rapists should never be released from prison. Maybe people should take a close look at yourpositions on how we treat criminals.

It was a nice try, much like when he angrily asked Representative Kim Thatcher if she wanted to arm murderers, but it was so blatantly a “have you stopped beating your wife” type question that it hardly deserved a response.

And by the way, do you wonder why Floyd is so outraged that a person with a felony conviction (something you can get in Oregon for a driving infraction, no expungement allowed) can ask (just ask, not get) to get his rights restored, when it was Floyd who crafted the legislation that allows this? Floyd is a lawyer and a prosecutor, he is a veteran legislator. The bill passed out of his committee with his support and no opposition. It passed the full Senate, with no opposition, passed the full House with no opposition, and was returned to the Senate after minor changes were made in the House where Floyd again voted for it.

It is deeply troubling to think that a person with Floyd’s experience has so little understanding of a bill he himself was responsible for, that he only “noticed” something was terribly “wrong” with the bill after it had gone through that much of the process.

Prozanski told me in a meeting, where other stake holders were present, that he knew something was “wrong” with the bill before the Governor signed it. Yet he did nothing.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with the bill. It did no more than allow a person who had made a mistake to seek redemption. Nothing in the bill gave rights back to felons, and if Prozanski thinks our courts will give gun rights back to murderers, he should ask himself why those people are out of prison to begin with, and why he trusts those crazy courts in the first place.

Prozanski goes on to say “Kevin also believes that a CHL holder should be able to carry a firearm into any public building including schools.”

Yes, I do. I am sure that the thousands upon thousands of law-abiding gun owners with children in the government schools agree. As I said, Prozanski has provided not one single syllable to justify his desire to disarm the good people, except for the paranoid and delusional ravings of a handful of dishonest anti-gun zealots.

Prozanski says in his email “I have spoken to numerous OFF and NRA members who agree with me that certain felons should be prohibited from restoring their gun rights.”  I have no idea which NRA members Prozanski has spoken to, but not a single OFF member, not one, has ever contacted us to say that they opposed what we did when we changed the law to simply make sense. Prozanski has made this comment in the past, but I have yet to see any evidence that there is any truth to it. I think it would be difficult for OFF to continue our endless efforts to soak our supporters for donations if we took positions that they disagreed with.

I believe it is a horrible tragedy that Prozanski’s sister was killed. But Prozanski’s focus on the weapon used, while ignoring the fact that a person was responsible, is simply more evidence of how out of touch those who would disarm you are. The gun that was used in the killing of Prozanzki’s sister was not self-animated. Those who have lost loved ones in vehicular homicides have not demanded that parents not drive on school grounds.

Prozanzki tries to make that case that he is not “anti-gun” by making note of the fact that the bill he mangled includes language to keep CHL info private. This is interesting since he refused to even hear a Senate Bill that would do the same thing, because in his own words, “my caucus does not support it.” But given the opportunity to strip good people of their rights to protect themselves, Prozanski was willing to insert that language in order to create a facade while viciously attacking the most law-abiding. It’s unlikely that he will convince too many people, but it  certainly proves that our information on his “poison pill” plans was accurate.

Prozanski also takes a swipe at Senator Jeff Kruse saying: “Some of you may have also received an e-newsletter from Senator Jeff Kruse making inaccurate claims about the bill, the committee process, and my intentions and position on these gun bills. It is unfortunate, because misinformation does a service to no one. Even though Jeff claims that I am “anti-gun” (I am not) he in fact voted with me and the three other committee members to amend another firearms bill, HB 2792, to pass it to the Senate floor with a “do pass” recommendation.”

In fact, Kruse’s newsletter was not at all inaccurate. Prozanski is clearly and undeniably anti-gun and no amount of protestation otherwise can change his record. But he is right about one thing. Kruse did go along with Prozanski when he gut and stuffed HB 2792, for reasons that still escape me. Kruse has always been a solid pro-gun vote, so this capitulation is inexplicable, but Prozanski’s attack should serve as a reminder that trying to get along with the anti-gun extremists is a losing proposition.

Obviously we have touched a nerve with Senator Prozanski, but I stand by each and every word that has been sent to OFF supporters about his actions and his record.

Prozanski accuses me of spreading “misinformation” but, as always, provides not one word of evidence for his false accusation.

Some of these bills are still “in play” so we still need to be vigilant and monitor the process. This session is not over by a long shot. If you received Prozanski’s email it is because you stepped up to confront the tactics of the freedom haters. For that I thank you. Your perseverance and activism continue to make a difference that cannot be measured.

Best regards,
Kevin Starrett

ADDED JUNE 8. Despite what Prozanski said in his email, we have not posted “photo shopped” pictures, or any pictures of him in any of our alerts this year. We do not even own Photo Shop. Please keep that in mind as you assess the accuracy of his other claims.

ADDED JUNE 18. Correction. We did in fact use a photo of Prozanski on a page discussing the bills that were sent to his committee. We forgot about that one. However, it was taken directly from the legislative website and was not “photo shopped.” The only change to the photo was that it was reproduced in black and white.

I want to thank everyone who sent me their comments on the various gun bills that were assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. I especially want to thank the vast majority of individuals who discussed the merits of those bills with civility and respect.

Unfortunately, many of you have received inaccurate “alerts” and other correspondence, including allegations that I am against keeping Concealed Handgun License (CHL) holders’ and applicants’ personal information confidential. That is not true. In fact, I support keeping such information confidential. You also have been told that I am “anti-gun.” That is also inaccurate.

Let me first set the record straight about myself. I was born and grew up in Texas. I lived there for almost 30 years. I purchased my first gun when I was 15 years old and have continuously owned firearms ever since. My sister was murdered with a handgun in 1973. I believe the state has the right and duty to place reasonable restrictions on whom can possess guns and where they can be carried. I have been a prosecutor in Oregon for 24 years. As a gun owner for more than 40 years, I support both the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 27 of the Oregon Constitution.

Now let me set the record straight about the firearms legislation pending in this year’s Legislative Session. To maximize support, I amended a bill in the committee to incorporate several changes into one firearms bill. As amended, HB 2797 includes these major points. It:

– Prohibits the disclosure of personal information of CHL holders and applicants, Clarifies when and how ATV operators and motorcyclists can carry firearms,

– Prohibits certain felons from petitioning the court for restoring gun rights,

– Prohibits guns on public school campuses,

– Requires a report from the State Police on compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007,

– Includes provisions limiting police authority to arrest or charge a CHL holder,

– Limits prosecution of CHL holders to state (not federal) law violations, and

– Repeals the law requiring an individual to allow police to examine a firearm to see if it is loaded or not.

Many of you have received information from Kevin Starrett of Oregon Firearms Federation, who has used scare tactics, misinformation and “photo shopped” pictures to berate the bill or me. He seems more interested in drumming up contributions than discussing the merits of the entire bill. In fact, it seems he only disagrees with only two points of the bill.

Kevin has previously testified that he believes all felons including murderers and rapists should be eligible to petition a court to restore their gun rights. I disagree. I have spoken to numerous OFF and NRA members who agree with me that certain felons should be prohibited from restoring their gun rights.

Kevin also believes that a CHL holder should be able to carry a firearm into any public building including schools. Again, I disagree with him. I believe certain public buildings including courthouses and schools should be off limits for guns, except for ROTC programs and gun safety classes.

Some of you may have also received an e-newsletter from Senator Jeff Kruse making inaccurate claims about the bill, the committee process, and my intentions and position on these gun bills. It is unfortunate, because misinformation does a service to no one. Even though Jeff claims that I am “anti-gun” (I am not) he in fact voted with me and the three other committee members to amend another firearms bill, HB 2792, to pass it to the Senate floor with a “do pass” recommendation.

I’ve heard from constituents who have two significant issues with HB 2797. Some support making CHL holders and applicants’ personal information confidential, and some support prohibiting CHL holders from carrying weapons on public school grounds. Many individuals support only one of these provisions, but not both. I support both, along with the other provisions of the amended bill.

I hope this letter clarifies what is actually included in HB 2797 as well as my personal beliefs and history regarding gun rights. I understand that we may not always agree, but I am open to hearing your point of view. Again, I want to thank everyone who contacted me and was civil in expressing their views.

Very truly,
Summary of HB 2797 as amended:
I. Carrying guns on ATVs and motorcycles
Sections 1-3: Clarifies when and how ATV operators and motorcyclists can carry firearms.

II. Concealed Handgun License (CHL) records
Section 4: Prohibits the disclosure of personal information of CHL holders and applicants.

III. Felons gun rights
Sections 5-6: Sets limits on when and who may petition the court for restoring gun rights. Prohibits felons who were convicted of a person felony while using a firearm or deadly weapon or a Measure 11 offense from seeking restoration of their gun rights. Requires eligible felons to wait three years before seeking restoration of their gun rights.

IV. Guns on public school grounds
Sections 7-8: Prohibits most firearms on public school grounds. Maintains current exemptions and adds new exemption for CHL holders.

V. Limits police authority to arrest or charge CHL holder
Section 9: Exempts CHL holders from being arrested or charged for violating ORS166.250 (1) (a) or (b) or ORS 166.370 (1)(a).

VI. Limits prosecution under ORS 166.425 to state law violations
Section 10: Limits application of ORS 166.425, Unlawful purchase of a firearm, to state law violations (deletes federal law violations from statute).

VII. Report from OSP to the Legislature regarding mental health records
Section 11: Requires state police to provide a report re: compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System Improvement Amendments Act of 2007. Including the state complying with reporting mental health records of those found guilty except for insane or declared insane by a court.

VIII. Sunset Clause
Section 12: Repeals Section 11 on 1/2/12.

IX. Repeals Examination of firearm by police
Section 13: Repeals ORS 166.380, Examination of firearm by police to determine if it is loaded or unloaded and prohibits arrest for failure to allow examination.

X. Effective Dates
Section 14: Sets effective date for changes to existing laws amended by Sections 1 to 3, 7, 9 and 10.

XI. Emergency Clause
Section 15: Emergency clause – bill becomes law and is effective upon governor’s signature.

We are now entering into that time in the legislative session where tempers fray, rational thinking is in short supply and really bad things happen.

Now that our session has a statutory ending date, the last minute back-stabbing, bill-stuffing and childish retribution is highly compressed.

While following what has happened to gun bills in 2011 would be better illustrated with a flow chart, we’ll do our best to explain where we stand now.

Although we had quite a few bills introduced in 2011, four actually made it through part of the legislative process.  They were:

HB 2787, a bill to protect the privacy of CHL holders.

HB 2791, a bill to turn background checks over to the Feds and save gun buyers some money.

HB 2792, a bill to recognize other state’s concealed handgun licenses and,

HB 2797, a bill to define how a person may lawfully transport a firearm on a motorcycle, ATV or snowmobile. (This link takes you to the “gut and stuffed” version of the bill.)

Early in the session we were informed by an unimpeachable source that Floyd Prozanski planned to insert a poison pill in any gun bill that came to his committee, unless he planned to kill the bill outright.  This information turned out to be painfully accurate.  So here’s where we are at.

HB 2787 passed overwhelmingly in the House and was killed by Prozanski  in Senate Judiciary. Although scheduled for a work session, Prozanski simply ignored the bill and it died on Wednesday.

HB 2791 passed out of the House Judiciary Committee. Representative Andy Olsen, usually a supporter of gun rights voted no, but Representative Chris Garrett, who is not in any way a reliable friend of gun rights, voted yes as a courtesy for a Republican rep who was out of the room at the time. 2791 was sent to the Ways and Means Committee where it currently lies, bruised and bleeding by the side of the road while legislators step over it and pretend it does not exist. It is not officially dead, but without some action soon it will die of neglect. The State Police will continue to mismanage background checks and gun buyers will continue to pay twice for a “service” they never requested.  Even some of the early supporters of this bill started to get cold feet when the public employee’s unions came out in force to proclaim that if a few union employees at the State Police ID unit lost their jobs, Oregon’s economy would collapse.

HB 2792 passed the House by a wide margin and was also sent to Floyd Prozanski’s sausage factory. There, any reference to recognizing other states’ permits was removed. Inserted was the motorcycle language from HB 2797 and new restrictions on felon’s abilities to get gun rights restoration.  This issue has been an obsession with Prozanski ever since 2009 when SB 603 passed. 603 allowed felons to go to court and make a case for why they should have their firearms rights restored. From the moment that bill passed (with no opposition in either house) Prozanski has been trying to reverse it. This is all the more odd since the bill was crafted by and approved by and voted for by…Floyd Prozanski. 2792 will next go to the full Senate for a vote. If it passes there (which is likely given that the two Republicans on the committee gave their blessings to this latest “gut and stuff”) it has to go back to the House for “concurrence.”  The House can refuse to concur in which case a “conference committee” will be created to craft a compromise. We have repeatedly requested the key players to consider an amendment that will move “recognition” forward and defuse the gun haters argument against it.

The gun haters primary, stated objection to recognizing other states’ handgun licenses is that other states do not have the lofty standards we do when issuing a CHL. We have crafted an amendment and have been distributing it to key legislators for months that instead simply allows residents of any state to apply for our license. We still believe this is a positive strategy but there is a serious case of  “not-invented-here” in our legislature and it’s unlikely any politician will suggest this simple commonsense amendment.

HB 2797 is the most pathetic example of legislative nonsense. In 2009, we drafted and passed legislation to define the term “readily accessible” for the purposes of transporting handguns for those without concealed handgun licenses.  Our language included definitions for transport on a motorcycle. The motorcycle language was mistakenly removed from the final version, so right now we have no legal and practical way to transport a handgun on a motorcycle without a CHL. HB 2797 fixed that problem, but also clarified how to lawfully carry on a snowmobile or ATV. This was NOT in any way a controversial bill. It passed the House without a single no vote. Then it was sent to Prozanski to be turned into a Frankenstein’s monster.  We have to give him credit, he did a heck of a job. That bill now bans guns on any school or college property, a goal that has been Ginny Burdick’s delusional fantasy for years. It’s interesting to note that in the past, Prozanski voted against the same legislation because he knew it could not pass the House and he did not want to force Senators to go on the record supporting such lunacy when it had no chance of passing. Now, with the exact same dynamics. Prozanski did a 180 and passed this garbage out of his committee, forcing Senate Democrats to go on record with almost no chance of the bill ever becoming law. We’ve been told that Burdick has been haunting Prozanski about this issue and that might explain his otherwise inexplicable about-face, but maybe it was this brilliant letter from “Ceasefire Oregon.”

They repeatedly testified that there were three murders committed by CHL holders in schools. While there is no evidence in any of the cases they mentioned that the killers were actually CHL holders, what is interesting is this; none of the cases were in Oregon, they had to search nationally to find three incidents, all happened in states where it is already illegal to have a gun on school property and not a single one of these incidents would have been prevented by the enactment of their demented “no self-defense-in-schools” policy. But it looks like this was enough for Prozanski and his fellow Democrats on the committee, Bonamici and Dingfelder. Who needs facts when you can always fall back on hysteria? (The bill also includes language to keep CHL info private. Prozanski told us he could not move a bill that did this because his caucus did not approve, but he did put it into this bill which is sure to fail. Confused yet? )

The Republicans on the committee, Doug Whitsett and Jeff Kruse responded with a “minority report” which is basically an alternative bill that the Senate can vote on. Neither discussed any element of the proposed legislation with OFF, and while their proposals were ambitious, even Senator Kruse, on a local talk show, admitted it had no chance of approval. Given that their proposal  was 34 pages, that it gave almost every anti-gunner something to hate, and was hastily and poorly drafted, this may be no net loss. The minority report had plenty of pro-gun language in it, but also included things that really made no sense, like making it a crime for someone under 18 to have a concealed firearm on school grounds. Last time we checked, that was already illegal.

On the other hand, the House Judiciary Committee modified a Senate Bill (SB 347) that was intended to protect private info of domestic violence victims and now includes protection for CHL holders. House Reps Mary Nolan and Carolyn Tomei, staunch liberal feminists voted against the bill in committee because it protects CHL holders. They would have voted yes to protect victims until the bill also protected victims who took steps to protect themselves. There are some people we will never quite understand.

So that’s where we stand today. 2797 and 2792 will be on the Senate floor soon.  2791 remains on life support in the Ways and Means Committee and Floyd has managed to artfully muck up everything that came from the House with wide majorities.  And now we get to do this every year.

Today, House Bill 2792 was, as we expected, gut and stuffed so all the language that recognized other states’ handgun licenses was removed.

Yesterday we told you about the amendments we expected to be added to the bill, so their adoption was not a surprise. What was a surprise was who made the motion to adopt the amendments. The motion to adopt the amendments was made by Republican Jeff Kruse.

Senator Doug Whitsettapproved of the amendments and the gut and stuffed bill was moved to the Senate floor.

The amendments include the language that would clarify how to lawfully carry a firearm on a motorcycle, snowmobile or ATV. But all this language existed in a clean stand alone bill that was mangled by Senate Judiciary Chair Floyd Prozanski. That  mangled bill, HB 2797 now also includes a ban on concealed carry on school grounds. 2797 is almost certainly dead, so getting the motorcycle language in a bill that could pass has a benefit, but all of this could have been easily accomplished by simply passing a clean version of HB 2797!

The amended version of HB 2792 also includes Prozanski’s language to restrict felon’s ability to apply for gun rights restoration. Both Republican Senators expressed reservations about the broadness of the new restrictions but both voted to gut and stuff the bill. Senator Kruse, after making the motion to approve the amendments commented that he really had not had time to read them in any depth.

There is one gun bill left in Senate Judiciary, HB 2787. This was the original CHL privacy bill.

That bill is scheduled for a work session tonight at 5:30 PM.  Given what has taken place in the Senate Judiciary Committee so far, the best we can hope for is that the bill just dies.

Frustrated by the childish shenanigans in the Senate Judiciary Committee, pro-gun members of the House Judiciary Committee today passed amendments to Senate Bill 347.

This bill  “Exempts from disclosure records of domestic violence service or resource center that concern individuals affected by domestic or sexual violence.”

The amendments add to the bill language that would protect CHL holder’s privacy. A House bill which would have done the same thing, and which passed the House by a wide margin has been stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee. While that bill is due to be heard tomorrow, we expect that as with all gun bills that go there, efforts will be made to mangle or kill it.

This is a positive development and thanks go to Co Chairs Jeff Barker and Wayne Krieger of House Judiciary for making this happen.

To no one’s surprise, House Reps Mary Nolan and Carolyn Tomei both voted, once again, against CHL privacy, and now have voted against the privacy of domestic violence victims. Way to go girls.

Having already eviscerated HB 2797 by turning a simple motorcycle carry bill into a ban on self-defense in schools, Floyd Prozanski is now making another colossal mess of HB 2792, a bill that would recognize other states’ concealed handgun licenses.

With these amendments, any language that recognizes other state’s CHL’s is removed and replaced by a bizarre mash up of other bills.

In these amendments the recognition language is gone and in its place is much of the language that Prozanski stuffed into 2797 dealing with restricting felon’s rights restoration, but he has also included the language that clarifies lawful carry on motorcycles, ATV’s and snowmobiles! The motorcycle, ATV and snowmobile corrections were already in HB 2797! All Prozanski had to do was leave the bill alone. Confused yet?

Frankly, we cannot give you any clue to what Prozanski is thinking.

HB 2792 is scheduled for a work session tomorrow. Also scheduled is HB 2787, a bill that would protect the privacy of CHL holders. Strangely, Prozanski stuffed the privacy language from that bill into the motorcycle bill where he also included a ban on guns in schools. Never has the old saying about law and sausage been more appropriate.

What amendments may be offered to the House CHL privacy bill are anyone’s guess, but given the astonishing mess Prozanski has made out of the other two bills, he may well amend THAT bill to ban guns in schools as well.

The Senate Judiciary Committee under Prozanski’s chairmanship has devolved into a dysfunctional graveyard for popular legislation, The two Republican members have done what they can to maintain some sanity, but frankly they are outnumbered.

Tomorrow’s work session promises to be another exercise in confusion and futility.

Please contact Senate President Peter Courtney and request that he provide some adult supervision for the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Contact info and sample message follow:

Senator Peter Courtney
503-986-1600
FAX:
503-986-1004
sen.petercourtney@state.or.us

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Dear Senator Courtney,

Bills that passed the House with overwhelming bi-partisan support are being turned into unrecognizable and confusing nonsense in the Senate Judiciary Committee. We’ve already seen House Bill 2797 go from a simple clarification on firearms transport to an all-out attack on personal protection on school grounds. Now a bill that would have recognized other states’ concealed handgun licenses is being butchered as well.  I urge you to request Senator Prozanski to just move the gun bills that have come from the House to his committee to the floor so Senators can vote on them as they were written. The confusion that Senator Prozanski is creating serves no one.

Yours,

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“Legislative hi-jinks” was the accurate description Senator Jeff Kruse gave to today’s Judiciary Committee antics when they held a “work session'” on House Bill 2797.

It’s important to understand that all this bill did was clarify how a person may lawfully transport a firearm on a motorcycle, ATV or snowmobile. The bill was so uncontroversial that no one, not one single House Rep, voted against it. But the Senate Judiciary Chairman, Floyd Prozanski, claimed in committee that the “volatile ” nature of gun bills required a “compromise.”  Prozanski’s compromise? Add 11 pages of amendments to a 4 page bill and turn simple “clean-up” legislation into a bill to ban licensed, concealed carry on all school grounds including college campuses. By the way, Prozanski had previously stated in committee that these amendments “did not exist.”

In Salem, no matter how cynical you are, you just can’t keep up.

Prozanski’s amendments, ( the latest version which only became available this morning, minutes before the hearing began) will almost certainly tank this bill.

We know that Prozanski and the two other Democrats on the committee are rabidly anti-gun, but this bill was an odd vehicle to try to gut gun rights at the school room door. In spite of Prozanski’s comments about the “volatility” of gun bills, this piece of legislation was nothing more than a correction for a previous legislative screw up.

The amendments almost certainly mean this bill is dead. So, for at least one more year, Oregon law will contain no guidance for anyone who wants to know how they can stay within the law while riding motorcycles, ATV’s and snowmobiles. Nice work Floyd.

Predictably, Ceasefire Oregon came to complain that the amendments did not go far enough. Their spokeswoman, who can most charitably be described as delusional, told the committee that there have been three school shootings by CHL holders, events that seem to have been reported to her and her alone. It is sad indeed to be this terrified by things that do not exist.

The bill now goes to the full Senate floor where we will ask you to do all you can to oppose it.

We fully expected the “paranoid caucus” to oppose any effort to protect the rights of gun owners in this session, but it ‘s a particular shame that they chose such an important and popular bill to try to ramrod their agenda.

Senators Jeff Kruse and Doug Whitsett made notice they they would be filing a minority report. This would be a substitute to this bill written by rational people. They should be thanked for standing up for liberty and common sense.

Please contact your Oregon State Senator and urge them to vote AGAINST HB 2797 when this monstrosity comes to the floor. You can use this link to write to your Senator. Uncheck the box that says “State House” as this bill is no longer in the House and we need only contact Senators. A suggested cut and paste message follows:

_________________________________________________________________

Dear Senator,

Partisan games have turned a simple and uncontroversial bill, HB 2797, into a vehicle to attack the rights of concealed handgun license holders. I am embarrassed by a process that would subvert a simple “clean-up” bill and use it to advance the agenda of those who would attack the most law-abiding Oregonians.  I hope in the future we can do better, but for now I urge you to vote “no” on HB 2797 as amended by Senator Prozanski.

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Voting to attack the rights of  those who ride motorcycles, ATV’s and snowmobiles:

Senator Suzanne Bonamici
Party: D District: 17
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1717
District Phone: 503-627-0246
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-403, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: PO Box 990, Beaverton, OR, 97075
Email: sen.suzannebonamici@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/bonamici

Senator Jackie Dingfelder
Party: D District: 23
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1723
District Phone: 503-493-2804
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: PO Box 13432, Portland, OR, 97213
Email: sen.jackiedingfelder@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/dingfelder

Senator Floyd Prozanski
Party: D District: 4
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1704
District Phone: 541-342-2447
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-417, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: PO Box 11511, Eugene, OR, 97440
Email: sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/prozanski

Voting rationally to protect those who ride motorcycles, ATV’s and snowmobiles:

Senator Jeff Kruse
Party: R District: 1
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1701
District Phone: 541-580-3276
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-315, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: 636 Wild Iris Lane, Roseburg, OR, 97470
Email: sen.jeffkruse@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/kruse

Senator Doug Whitsett
Party: R District: 28
Capitol Phone: 503-986-1728
District Phone: 541-883-4006
Capitol Address: 900 Court St NE, S-303, Salem, OR, 97301
District Office Address: 23131 N. Poe Valley Road, Klamath Falls, OR, 97603
Email: sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us
Website: http://www.leg.state.or.us/whitsett

AS PREDICTED.

As we suspected, amendments have been introduced to neuter HB 2797, our bill to clarify how a person may lawfully transport a firearm on a motorcycle, ATV or snowmobile.

This bill and the proposed amendments are due to be heard at 8AM tomorrow. We apologize for the late alert, but we just received the amendments.

The amendments do several things, but as we expected, the principle (and most troubling) change is the effort to ban concealed carry on ALL school grounds including college property.

This simple bill may well be stuffed with 11 pages of amendments, which will all but guarantee that the bill will die. We will continue to do all we can to assure the bill gets a vote in its original form.

You can see the amendments here. We will keep you informed and keep fighting for a clean bill and a fair vote.  We thank our friends in the motorcycle community for their efforts to move this bill forward.

 

GUN BILLS SCHEDULED FOR WORK SESSION

At the last possible moment, the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled three gun bills that OFF has been working on all session, in some cases for more than one session.

There is no question that your tireless efforts are the reason why.

While there can certainly be changes, HB 2797 has been scheduled for May 26 at 8 AM. This bill does nothing more than clarify a lawful way to transport a handgun on a motorcycle and any firearm on a snowmobile or ATV. It is non-controversial and has had no opposition, but it is also the bill we believe most likely to be used as a vehicle to ban licensed carry in schools. So, while it is a victory that it has been scheduled, the battle is far from over. We still need to make sure the bill is not turned into something its sponsor never intended.

House Bills 2787 and 2792 are scheduled for June 1 at 8:30 AM. These two bills protect the privacy of CHL holders and recognize the concealed handgun licenses from other states respectively.

Make no mistake, it was your pressure that forced the Committee Chair to put these bills on the schedule. But we have a long way to go. As we have said, we believe there may be some very damaging amendments that could be attached to these bills, so we still need to keep the pressure on to make sure they are passed with no amendments.

Committee Chairmen typically do NOT schedule bills they don’t plan to pass, but this committee is controlled by anti-gun Democrats so they might very well have some tricks up their sleeves. Don’t stop now. Please contact the committee and urge them to pass these three bills as they are with no amendments. And thanks for all you have done, against all odds, so far.