12.11.14

The first anti-gun bill was introduced in draft form yesterday by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

The draft was introduced as a “committee bill” which means whoever requested it prefers to keep her name off it.

The draft would expand the prohibition of firearms possession to “municipal” and “justice” courts.

As you know, most courts already forbid persons, even those with concealed handgun licenses, from having firearms.

As of now, the law does not include “municipal” courts in the prohibition. This bill would add them. This is dangerous and unneeded.

First of all, the courts have held that even though municipal courts (places where you typically go to pay speeding tickets) are not included in the statute as places where guns are forbidden, the judge of such a court may forbid them through his own rule. Many already do. So why do we need this law?

Many,  if not most , municipal courts are rooms in other facilities or are used for other purposes in addition to being used as courtrooms. For example, some are used for city council meetings. Some are in police stations or other buildings that are used for many purposes.

Right now, when court is in session, a municipal court judge can ban guns in his courtroom while court is in session. Under this proposed legislation, any room that was used as a municipal courtroom, regardless of what else it was used for, or what else was done in the building it was housed in, would be treated, for all intents and purposes, as if it were a courthouse!

(2) “Court facility” means a courthouse or that portion of any other building occupied by a circuit court, a justice court, a municipal court, the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court or the Oregon Tax Court or occupied by personnel related to the operations of those courts, or in which activities related to the operations of those courts take place.

By this wide definition, any building housing one of these courts would become effectively off limits to gun owners. There are countless places that gun owners will  be prevented from going while armed, even when they have legitimate business that is not related to court activities.

The potential complications and ramifications of this proposed legislation are enormous.  And, it’s all totally unnecessary given that any judge can make this rule for his courtroom now.

This is just the first of many foolish and dangerous bills that will be on our screen in the coming months.  Get ready to help us shoot them down.

You can see the draft here.

12.05.14

As you know, the next legislative session will be bringing a flood of anti-gun bills. Given the makeup of the legislature, some very bad legislation could well become law. So we believe that the battles for our rights may very well come down to whether our county commissioners and sheriffs are willing to stand up to Portland.

The opening salvos in that battle are now being fired.

Oregon Firearms has contacted every sheriff in the state asking for their commitment to protecting Second Amendment Rights, irrespective of what anti-gun bills are passed in the legislature.  We are also reaching out to the county commissioners.

On December 2nd,  Clackamas County Commissioner Tootie Smith addressed the commission about the prospect of the county taking a pro-active, pro-gun stand. The audio of that meeting can be heard here. The discussion about gun rights starts at 35.30.

In the audio, County Commissioner Martha Schrader, (ex-wife of anti-gun congressman Kurt Schrader) takes a jab at OFF and muses about our “agenda”.  Apparently Martha is still upset that OFF supported her opponent, pro-gun Alan Olsen, when they were in a race for State Senate.

Commissioner Paul Savas says he tried to contact us numerous times in the past and got no return calls. What he fails to mention is that his calls were all fund raising calls. He also neglects to mention his lack of response when we pointed out to him that he had helped pass an ordinance regulating gun dealers that he had no authority to implement.

There can be no doubt that only Commissioner Tootie Smith was willing to take a principled stand while the rest of the commission looks for any excuse to either do nothing or actively oppose gun rights.

Please don’t underestimate the power of your county commissioners and your sheriffs. If they are willing to take a stand for your rights, a powerful message will go to the legislature.

We’ll keep you up to date on when and if your sheriff takes a stand. (As usual, Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant County has already taken a pro-gun pledge!) But until they do, please don’t hesitate to contact them and your commissioners and let them know you expect them to be looking out for your rights no matter what Portland tries to pass. You can find them here at the bottom of the page.

As an example of just how bad the coming “background check/ universal registration” schemes can be, take a look at this notice from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. It explains how under Washington’s newly passed gun grab (I594), students at a hunter safety class won’t be allowed to pass rifles to each other!

It does state that instructors will be allowed to hand rifles to a student, but even that may not be accurate. See here for an explanation of why hunter safety instructors may not be allowed to hand guns to students.

Under I594, you won’t even be allowed to buy or hand a nail gun or flare gun to another person without police permission and an expensive background check!

Do not doubt for a moment that, based on his success in Washington, Michael Bloomberg will be spending millions to pass a similar ballot measure here and will be counting on uninformed voters and a lazy, complicit media to get it done.

All indications are that the vast majority of voters in Washington, and many, many gun owners had no idea what they were voting for in Washington. This is the great danger of ballot measures. Too many voters make a decision based only on the lies they are told on TV.  We simply cannot allow that to happen in Oregon.  Contact your sheriff and county commissioners and tell them to say no to any anti-gun bill or ballot measure. 

12.04.14

Your tireless efforts have paid off one more time. The Administrative Services of the Corvallis City Council have decided not to proceed with a senseless and counterproductive ban on loaded carry of firearms.

Make no mistake, it was your efforts that turned the tide, but while the City Council of Corvallis recognized the meaninglessness of the propose ordinance, there are plenty of other fronts where the nanny state busybodies are hard at work.

Their latest target locally is Fred Meyer stores.  As in Corvallis, there is no actual issue. Fred Meyer is hardly a hotbed of open carry activity, this is simply one more way to attempt to stigmatize gun owners.  The goal is not to stop something that isn’t even happening, it’s to reinforce the idea that simple ownership of firearms is evil.

Ironically of course, many Fred Meyer stores now actually sell guns, and Fred Meyer contributes to our Foundation.

While this is an important victory, it’s just a down payment on the battles we will face state wide in February. Thanks for all your hard work and get ready to fight and win the next one.

12.02.14
Tomorrow, December 3, the Corvallis City Council Administrative Services Committee will be, once again, discussing a ban on loaded firearms.

Ceasefire Oregon is pushing hard for a ban telling their members to contact the committee with a demand  that they “prohibit openly carried guns.”  In the same email they claim “that people who openly carry are not required to have any firearm training and do not even have to pass a background check to purchase a weapon let alone carry a loaded gun in public.”

As usual, Ceasefire is hoping by repeating the same lies often enough they can convince the committee to enact more restrictions on your rights.

The fact is, regardless of what the nanny-staters at CFO demand, the city has zero authority to ban openly carried guns in Corvallis. And, of course, those who carry firearms openly are every bit as subject to background checks as anyone else. But the truth has never been an obstacle for the girls at CFO.

Please take one more moment to remind the members of the committee that anything they do will only be symbolic.  They cannot ban “open” carry and if they ban “loaded” carry the ban does not apply to CHL holders and cannot be enforced against those without CHL’s unless they are in the process of committing a crime.  The Corvallis City Attorney and the Chief of Police have repeatedly reminded the council of this reality.

The meeting will be at 3:30 at the Madison Ave. Meeting Room. Council members serving on the Administrative Services Committee are Hal Brauner (Ward 9), Joel Hirsch (Ward 6), and Biff Traber (Ward 8).

You can help us put the brakes on this stupidity and get a tax credit. But to get the credit for 2014 you must act before the end of this month. Please see this link for the details.

11.25.14

The Administrative Services Committee of the Corvallis City Council has scheduled “Discussion/Possible Action” on restrictions on “open carry” in the City. That meeting will be on Dec. 3 at 3:30 PM in the Madison Ave. Meeting room, 500 SW Madison Ave. Corvallis.

It’s important to keep in mind that the City actually has very limited abilities to restrict open carry at all. They are limited to restricting loaded carry and those restrictions could only apply to persons without concealed handgun licenses. Any rule or ordinance that restricted “loaded” carry could be become an enforcement nightmare since the simple act of carrying a gun is not a crime, and outside of “public buildings” would give police no justification to stop a person and determine if the gun was loaded.

So any restriction will be purely theater to appease a small group of people with irrational fears.

Council members serving on the Administrative Services Committee are Hal Brauner (Ward 9) , Joel Hirsch (Ward 6), and Biff Traber.

Please take a moment to contact them and remind them that any restrictions on loaded, open carry would serve no purpose and do little more than create headaches for local police all to quiet a tiny number of misguided and fearful malcontents.

Councilman Hirsch has a history of  acerbic and rude responses to voters. Keep that in mind when contacting him.

11.24.14

On a TV show aired on Sunday November 23rd, Senator Floyd Prozanski began what will no doubt be his usual lengthy string of lies. Get used to it, it’s what he does best.

The issue, of course, is the upcoming tsunami of anti-civil rights bills that Prozanski and other Democrats plan to introduce in the February legislative session.

First on Floyd’s list, mandatory universal gun registration and police permission to lend, give, or sell a firearm to a friend or family member.  Floyd would also like to be able to have your guns taken away based on any unproven accusation about your “mental health.”

(Floyd got this idea from a bill passed in California that allows anyone who has a grudge against you to tell the state you are mentally ill. When that happens, you are guilty until proven innocent, and the state takes your guns. Welcome to Prozanski’s gulag.)

In the course of the show, which Prozanski  did with Senator Jeff Kruse, he regurgitated all his usual hogwash.

He talked about how the current background check system was a great success.

He said the State Police can’t inform local police when a prohibited person is trying to buy a gun.

He said you could buy a gun on the internet without a background check.

As usual, all lies.

But we did notice he has modified his usual line of crap. Now he makes sure to say that all his efforts to attack gun rights are intended to prevent bad guys from getting “easy” access to guns.

The reason for this new modifier is because Floyd, and all his sycophants, know nothing prevents criminals from getting guns.  And his new attacks on our rights won’t either. So since nothing he does keeps guns from bad folks, why not say  ” hey, we made it inconvenient!” And of course, it doesn’t even do that. But it sure prevents good people from getting guns.

In the coming months, Prozanski and his well funded toadies will continue to lie about everything. The networks and newspapers will sit back and enable the lies. Count on it.

That’s why it is going to be entirely up to you and I to keep getting the truth on the record. It won’t be easy, and it will be infuriating. But we must do it.

11.13.14

Oregon’s first anti-gun ballot measure has been filed.

This bizarre measure called the “Oregon State Integrated Concealed Handgun Carry Act” has been filed by “Ifeanyichukwu Diru” who you may (or may not) recall, actually ran for Governor.

The measure calls for handgun licenses to be limited to one year and all applicants must “submit a mental health report from their physicians as part of conditions to qualify to hold a concealed handgun permit” (sic)

Of course, there is more.

We fully expected the lunatic anti-gun fringe to pull out all the stops thanks to their gains in the legislature and the reelection of Kitzhaber, so this ballot measure should not be a surprise, but it is just a down payment on what’s coming down the road. 

Remember, no matter what the freedom haters in the population centers dream up, most counties in Oregon are pro-gun. If their sheriffs and county commissioners refuse to support this kind of lunacy, it’s going to be up to a tiny number of State Police to try to enforce this kind of nonsense.  Where do your sheriffs and commissioners stand?

 Complete info on the ballot measure here.

Critical town hall meeting on Wednesday night. Please try to be there.

With every passing hour, the Washington County Elections office is finding more votes for Chuck Riley, the Bloomberg funded, anti-gun extremist running against Republican Bruce Starr for Oregon Senate in the 15th district.

This dramatic turn around for Riley, who had been trailing, is a remarkable re-run of John Kitzhaber’s last minute win in 2010 when a whole boatload of votes appeared at the eleventh hour in Multnomah County. Funny how that works.

Whether Starr eventually prevails or not, the Democrats have picked up the one seat they need to ram through any attack on the Second Amendment they want to.

Although they already had a one vote edge, that one vote was held by Senator Betsy Johnson, who could be counted on to be rational when it came to anti-gun votes.  Now with the defeat of another pro-gun Betsy, Senator Betsy Close, by rabid anti-gunner Sara Gelser, the Dems can go around Senator Johnson and pass their entire laundry list of gun grabs in the Senate.

The anti-rights radicals have made no secret that they hope to make this change in the Senate their key to smashing Second Amendment rights.  Remember, these people, for all their lies about “reasonable, common sense” laws, have tried to ban all modern firearms and allow the police to search your home without a warrant!

With the re-election of John Kitzhaber, who has made gun control a central theme of his administration, (along with unprecedented corruption) and the passage of I-594 in Washington, Bloomberg’s well funded stooges are convinced they have a mandate to eliminate gun rights in Oregon.

We have no intention of letting that happen.  The fact is, I-594 passed in Washington because the media and the state worked side by side to deceive Washington residents about what the ballot measure did. There was not a well coordinated response by gun owners. We must not allow that to happen here.

That brings us to Arnie Roblan.  Roblan served in Oregon’s House and even served as “co-speaker” when the Oregon House was evenly split.  Although a Democrat, Roblan stood up for gun owners’ rights. Then he got elected to the Senate.

Under intense pressure from Senate President Peter Courtney and the Democrat caucus, Roblan did a hard left rudder. After promising to vote against more gun restrictions, Roblan voted in favor of 4 anti-gun bills in 2013.

Gun owners responded in force. All 4 bills were killed after passing out of Roblan’s committee.

Then, in this year’s session, Roblan got the message and voted against the one anti-gun bill that made it to his committee. Roblan felt the heat and saw the light. Now we have to remind Roblan that voting to attack the rights of the people in his district would not be in his best interest.

It’s essential that Roblan continue to hear from gun owners across the state. If you live in or near Yamhill County you can remind Roblan to protect your rights this Wednesday, November 12 in Sheridan. Roblan will be holding a town hall at the Larson Hall Conference Center, Delphian School, 20590 SW Rock Creek Road, Sheridan, Oregon 97378 at 7.30 PM

For more info you can contact the Delphian School  at 800-626-6610 ex 315. If you can attend this meeting, your voice will make a difference.

11.05.14

Oregon has re-elected the Governor of Portland.  John Kitzhaber had been chosen to serve a 4th term.

Oregon is now at, or near, the bottom of every major metric with one exception. Oregon leads the country in foreclosures. The executive office of the state has been held by a Democrat for longer than many people have been alive. Kitzhaber has held that office for 12 of those years and, if not indicted, will hold it for 4 more.

After Obama took office he blamed every failure of his policies on previous administrations. Kitzhaber didn’t have that luxury, but it didn’t matter.

Millions of your dollars have been squandered on failed websites and bridges to nowhere. No one knows how many more millions have been funneled to Kitzhaber through his felonious girlfriend and shady deals with friends.

Both The Oregonian and Willamette Week have reported heavily on the blatant corruption of this governor and also endorsed him.

For anyone who has wondered how places like Chicago, Detroit and Washington DC can continue to embrace crooks, you now have your answer.

The single worst manager this state has ever seen will now have free rein to line his pockets and those of his significant other for four more years. Our schools and economy will continue to compete with Haiti and Guatemala in a race to the bottom.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the Oregon Senate has replaced a pro-gun stalwart with a woman who wants to take gun rights away from foster parents. Sara Gelser is the new  Senator for District 8.  Sara was the lucky recipient of a windfall from a California billionaire who helped (millionaire) Gelser attack Betsy Close because she supported a woman’s right to own a gun for self defense.

Another Senate seat, Republican Bruce Starr’s, is still too close to call at the time of this posting. His opponent, Chuck Riley was funded by Michael Bloomberg.

The Oregon Senate is already 16-14 Democrat. With only one exception, Betsy Johnson, they are all anti-gun. Gaining one seat alone will allow them to pass virtually any anti-gun bill they choose. And they have made it clear they will be working a long list of anti-gun proposals.  Sure to come up is universal gun registration which is a precursor everywhere for confiscation. Just ask the folks in New York who have had their guns confiscated thanks to the kind of registration former Mayor Bloomberg is pushing across the country.

Add to that the bills they have never been able to pass before.

Semi-auto bans.

Magazine bans.

A ban on guns in schools.

An end to preemption allowing every town to make their own rules.

Warrantless searches of your home.

Lock up laws.

A mandate to run away from an attacker.

That’s just a warm up.

The Republicans also lost one seat in the House although that seat was held by a “Republican” (Vicki Berger) who voted anti-gun and attacked pro-gun Republicans.  Not much of a net loss there.

On top of all this news is the passage of Ballot Measure 594 in Washington State. This is the universal registration/background check bill paid for by Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and other fairly well off folks.

This measure could make you a felon for handing a gun to a buddy at the range. Yes, it’s that bad.

While there is no question that this measure only happened because of unlimited funds by billionaire gun grabbers, it’s also true that there was not a particularly effective counter campaign.  The “rich” gun lobby never came close to matching the funds spent by the gun grabbers. No doubt many who voted for this had no idea just how dangerous it is.

In fact, many gun owners simply don’t see the danger in “background checks.”  And this will be the battle folks. There can be no real “background checks” without universal registration.

Over and over this has been the path to confiscation.

Make no mistake. If the gun grabbers succeed with any of these plans they won’t be stopping there.

First they came for gun dealers, then they came for gun shows. Now they will be coming to stop you from giving a gun as a gift to a family member or lending one to a friend whose life is in jeopardy. Those simple acts will make you a criminal.

None of these attacks will affect criminals or people intent on suicide. As long as there is one misuse of a gun, the haters of freedom will be pushing for more restrictions. Time after time they have shown their hand and made it clear that they will not be satisfied until every gun is controlled by the state.

In 1999, the Oregon Legislature was ramming through a background check bill. It had passed the Senate and went to the House where it was made worse by a political gadfly, Republican House Rep. Kevin Mannix.

Mannix worked behind the scenes with groups pretending to be pro-gun to create HB 2535, a bill to ban private sales of firearms.

It was supposed to be a “sure thing”. Only the Oregon Firearms Federation opposed it.

OFF was then about 6 months old, but even them we defeated this bill against all odds and with no help from the NRA.  We can do it again with your help.  But frankly, it’s going to take a heck of a lot of work by all of us.

A ballot measure funded by billionaires is going to be  different story. If that happens there will  simply be no substitute for money.

The anti-gun side now has unlimited funds and has made no secret that they see the ballot measure process as a roadmap to New York style gun control. Too many voters know too little about the truth of these measures.

Oregon Firearms Federation is a political organization. Our focus is on winning political battles through activism. But we cannot underestimate the threats to your rights based on the changes in the Oregon Legislature and the introduction of limitless funds by those who want to steal your freedom.  While we urge you to prepare for the political battles ahead and be a part of this fight, you should also consider making any preparations now to deal with potential bans and confiscations.

Get ready. It’s going to be a wild ride.

11.04.14

Last night’s Corvallis City Council meeting on a proposed loaded carry bad was appropriately held in a theater.

Although the public opposed the proposal overwhelmingly (37 to 12 by one count) most of the Council voiced the opinion that the ordinance should be passed, while noting that it would accomplish exactly… nothing.

Corvallis is legally allowed to ban loaded carry of firearms, in public places by persons without concealed handgun licenses, they have no power to ban open carry of unloaded guns or any carry by license holders.

Since the proponents of the ban based their support exclusively on their discomfort seeing guns, clearly this ordinance would not help ease their delicate sensibilities.  As one Oathkeeper pointed out, if you don’t have XRAY vision you still don’t know if the guns that strike fear into your heart are loaded or not.  So all those who are fearful or offended by the sight of a firearm are just going to have to continue to live in terror.

Much of the testimony in favor of limiting gun owners’ rights made it clear that the real goal is the elimination of guns altogether and had nothing to do with the ordinance. All of the talk about suicides and the violence in the hearts of men really didn’t address the issue of “seeing” a gun.

Several people said that they wanted to end open carry because a person carrying a gun could kill you over any minor disagreement, like asking them not to smoke in the park.  None of these folks acknowledged that a person who was concealing a gun can kill you too.

One of the principle arguments the gun grabbers use against concealed carry holders is that by “hiding” their guns they are capable of committing all kinds of mayhem that could be avoided if people could see the guns and flee.   But now they don’t want to see them either.

Councilor Joel Hirsch spent the entire hearing ignoring speakers and staring at his laptop. (Updating his My Space page no doubt.) Councilor Mike Bielstein hid behind his laptop which is covered with a flag of Cuba.  When questioned about his allegiances he said “talk to me after the meeting” but during one short break he high-tailed it off the stage to seek refuge behind the curtains.

There was essentially no police presence there in spite of the attempts by the liberty haters to gin up fear. And amazingly, there were no incidents.

Ironically, there were probably more people openly carrying firearms at the Council hearing last night that in all of Corvallis…forever.

The supporters of this new intrusion have admitted it is entirely symbolic. They are more concerned with people who want to feel safe than people who want to be safe.

As of now, the Council has chosen not to vote on the ban and has referred it back to the Administrative Services Committee. A referral to the voters is being discussed.

To everyone who showed up or emailed, make no mistake. You are the reason this pointless attack on your rights has not moved forward.  Thank you for your efforts.

Contact info for the entire council is available here.

11.03.14

The anti-rights crowd is resorting to their usual tactics of ginning up hatred and fear.

As you know, tonight will be another hearing on a loaded carry ban by the Corvallis City Council.

In an email to the council, one of the leaders of the anti-rights crowd included these comments:

“I have received a communication regarding the possible disturbances at the meeting when the open gun carriage ordinance will be discussed.”

“We’ve also talked to some city council members and they seem to prefer that we do not come and give the gun bullies a target for their abuse.”

“However, I do respect your council on this matter, being sensitive to your concerns about not making a potentially explosive situation worse”

He also said:  “The council is not planning to vote on the ordinance on Monday night…”

Where he received that information is anyone’s guess.

The people who want to attack your rights are willing to stoop to anything. Thousands of gun owners have stood on the capitol steps with firearms and the one or two anti-gun protesters there were treated with courtesy.

No one was ever threatened. No one was intimidated. The State Police remarked that they had never seen the Capitol left so clean.

Their attempts at ginning up paranoia are disgraceful. We also know they are doubling down on their efforts to get anti-gun messages to the council members.

Please make every effort to be at this hearing tonight when the council convenes at 5.30 PM.

The hearing will be held at the Majestic Theater in Corvallis. Firearms possession is allowed.

Let’s fill that room.

If you cannot come, please contact the council.

Contact info for the entire council is available here.

 And please, if you have not already done so, drop off your ballots today.