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POST SESSION WRAP UP 2005
By Kevin Starrett
Executive Director
The 73rd Oregon legislative session is behind us.
In spite of a torrent of anti-gun bills, and a Senate and Governor
both opposed to gun rights, not a single piece of anti-gun legislation
passed.
Your hard work derailed every attempt to further chisel away
our liberties, and I cannot express how thankful I am for all
you have done.
Heading into the session we knew we were facing an uphill battle.
The Governor has a long history of supporting gun restrictions.
The Senate was under the control of some of the most outspoken
opponents of gun rights the state has ever known. The Senate
Committee that hears most gun bills was chaired by Ginny Burdick
who has made attacking gun rights her life’s work.
We faced bills to outlaw
most modern firearms. Bills that would require you to keep
your self-defense firearm locked
up and useless. Bills to ban licensed concealed carry anywhere
school
children showed up. There were bills to
raise fees for background checks by 250% and bills to gut
Oregon’s pre-emption law. There was a bill to outlaw
many ammunition magazines.
But there were other equally insidious measures in play.
The Port of Portland requested a
bill to greatly expand the powers of the Port’s police.
We had alerted the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee that
the Port
of Portland is currently in violation of the law because of
its policy of forbidding persons with concealed handgun licenses
from being on airport property.
Although we received assurances that this issue would be addressed
should the bill get a hearing, not a word was mentioned when
the hearing took place. Similar assurances from one of the sponsors
of the bill never materialized when the bill went to “work
session.” There, the bill was approved and passed to the
House floor. That’s when we went to work.
Copies of documents demonstrating that the Port of Portland
was in violation were delivered to every Republican House Representative.
(All of
these documents are available on our website.)
Each was contacted to make sure they had seen the information.
As a result of our exposing the illegal actions of the Port,
and despite having been sent to the House Floor with a “Do
Pass” recommendation, the bill was pulled back into committee
and killed.
It was a scene soon to be repeated.
OFF was a party to lengthy negotiations with the Oregon Sheriffs
Association. They wanted to make numerous changes to Oregon’s
concealed handgun law. But none of the proposed changes benefited
gun owners. In fact, they were just a wish list of ways to make
CHL’s harder to get, and easier to revoke.
We found ourselves saying “no” over and over. In
an effort to win our approval for a new round of attacks on
your rights, they offered to include language we felt very strongly
about. A “renew
by mail” for CHL holders who were active duty military
and could not renew in person.
As you know, this was a key issue for us and we had been working
hard to get it passed. But your rights are not something that
we can negotiate away. We went on record saying the language
of their bill was not acceptable, with or without renew by mail.
At this point we were promised by Committee
Chair Wayne Krieger, that the bill would not move forward
unless we approved and that amendments would be added to address
our objections. The very next day, the bill, with no improvements,
was voted out of Committee!
That was a Friday morning. By Monday morning, Krieger had hundreds
of e-mails on his desk from OFF supporters outraged at what
had taken place.
Krieger responded that he had been mislead by a committee staffer
who told him that we “approved” the bill.
We have no idea how this could have taken place. We had testified
that we opposed the bill. Nothing of substance changed between
the time we went on record opposing the bill and the following
day when the bill passed out of committee. But plenty changed
after that.
Because of OFF supporters, Krieger, (once again) pulled the
bill off the House floor and back to committee, where, it too,
died.
Your efforts also derailed an attempt to raise fees charged
for gun purchase background checks. As you know, these checks
are not a “service” requested by gun owners. Because
of your calls and e-mails, that bill was yanked off the Senate
floor and killed.
Without a doubt, the anti-gun bill that got the most attention
was Ginny Burdick’s attack on CHL holders. As she does
in every session, Burdick pushed legislation to outlaw
concealed carry on school property, or anywhere school children
gathered.
In an attempt to exclude as many gun owners as possible from
attending, the first hearing was held at the Multnomah County
Courthouse, where concealed carry is prohibited and parking
is nonexistent. Supporters of Burdick’s bill were treated
to reserved seating while opponents were left standing in the
hall.
But gun owners from all over the state arrived anyway and made
their feelings known.
That bill languished, but Burdick came back with another, similar
bill.
After a contentious meeting of Senate Democrats, another hearing
was held. Once again, articulate gun owners showed up to oppose
this mindless assault on freedom and common sense.
In the end, even Senator
Floyd Prozanski (an outspoken anti-gunner) voted against
the bill and it died in committee. Burdick was predictably apoplectic
and defeated once again.
Given the makeup of the Senate, this was a great victory for
gun rights activism.
Unfortunately, because of the makeup of the Legislature this
session, positive action was almost out of the question.
Most pro gun bills that were introduced in the House, never
went anywhere because of the fear that they would be amended
into bad bills when they were sent to the Senate.
The exceptions were a bill to
protect gun makers and sellers from frivolous lawsuits and
a bill to define
“loaded” when carrying a firearm on a snowmobile
or ATV.
Both passed in the House and died in the Senate.
Pro-gun bills introduced in the Senate were never heard because
the Senate was controlled by anti-gun militants. And sadly,
some great opportunities were missed because “pro-gun”
legislators were simply too timid to force the issue.
For example, a version of our bill to help active duty military
personnel was introduced in the Senate. It was assigned to the
committee chaired by anti-gun militant Ginny Burdick who refused
to hear it. A motion could have been made by any pro-gun Senator
requesting that the bill be removed from her committee. Whether
the motion passed or failed, we would, at least, have had a
recorded vote on the issue. (A valuable tool come election time.)
But despite our requests, not a single Senator would step up
and make the motion. After endless rhetoric about helping our
men and women who are risking their lives far from home, and
though even the anti-gun governor approved, this simple, cost
free measure died.
Despite these disappointments, we held our ground because of
your willingness to step up and make your voice heard. Never
underestimate the power you have as an activist. Your immediate
responses not only stopped bills from moving, but actually reversed
bills that were already well on their way to passage. This is
an impressive feat.
This session reminded us once again about the importance of
immediate action in the face of a threat. As you can imagine,
our e-mail alerts are the most timely way to get information
and act on it. If you don’t get our alerts, please go
to our web page and sign up for them. And remember, you can
always call us for up to the minute info on what’s happening
legislatively.
This state legislative session is over. The action now moves
over to Federal legislation.
As you know, the US Senate recently passed a bill to protect
gun makers and dealers from baseless lawsuits. However they
allowed some dangerous amendments to be included.
One requires the purchase of gun locks with handgun purchases.
The other opens the door to a whole host of restrictions on
ammo in the future. The bill is now in the hands of the US House.
The NRA announced their intention to get the bill passed through
the Senate even if it contained bad amendments. Their stated
intention was to “clean up “ the bill when it went
to the House.
We felt this was a dangerous policy, but now we have no choice
but to deal with the bill and attempt to either fix it or kill
it. Both of the included amendments are more dangerous than
they appear.
The trigger lock language is an open invitation to prosecute
anyone who does not use one, and the ammunition language opens
a Pandora’s Box of potential problems down the road.
We will be working with other national and local groups around
the US to track the progress of this bill and stop any gun control
from being added. But for right now congratulate yourself on
a session ending with no loss of rights. You’ve done fine
work.
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Copyright
© 2000 - 2008, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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