SB 1008 HAS FIRST HEARING
SB 1008 received its first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning. It became obvious that there are still people in positions of power who don’t understand current law or the potential changes being proposed by this bill.
The bill now has some amendments that clarify how a firearm may be transported on a motorcycle, but make virtually everything else incomprehensible.
We suggest you take a look at this bill and see if you understand it. Even the attorney who drafted it admits it’s “complicated.”
The bill essentially reverses the clarifications we made in 2009 with Senate Bill 603. Prior to 603’s enactment, the law said a person with a felony conviction could go before a court and request restoration of the right to buy a gun. But the law still prohibited them from owning it.
After many attempts to explain that this made no sense, Senator Floyd Prozanski finally asked that a correction to this error be amended into another bill we requested that clarified the term “readily accessible” for purposes of transporting a handgun in a vehicle.
When 603 passed, it seemed we had clarified an area of Oregon gun law misunderstood by many people including politicians and DA’s. But now Prozanski is saying that he did not understand the changes he himself requested, and has introduced an incredibly complicated and difficult to understand bill to reverse much of 603.
Under 1008, no one will be allowed to ask for restoration of rights until 15 years after they are off parole or probation. And if your “felony” involved giving a firearm to a family member who lived in another state, you can NEVER ask for rights restoration.
Let’s say your daughter moves out of the house. You want her to have some protection so you give her one of your firearms. But, wait, your daughter moved to Washington or Idaho. Now you and your daughter are both felons. Under this law, you and she will NEVER be allowed to appear before a judge and make a case to have your rights restored. It’s absurd.
During the hearing Prozanski claimed that he was aware that there was a “flaw” in this bill BEFORE the Governor signed it. He never explained why NO ONE simply asked the Governor to veto it.
In e-mails to voters, Prozanski has claimed that OFF has chosen to distribute “inaccurate information.” This is false. He claimed that OFF and NRA agreed to allow this bill to move forward. This is also false.
He has also claimed that “Every other gun owner that I talked to about the error in SB 603 said they agreed that felons should not be able to immediately petition the court for their guns rights”
But OFF has copies of many e-mails from gun owners that were sent to Prozanski saying the exact opposite, that they supported a law that allowed a person to go to court to make a case for restoration, which is all 603 did. So while Senator Prozanski has told people that we are “distributing inaccurate information” it is in fact Prozanski who cannot keep the facts straight.
This bill is scheduled for another public hearing and possible “work session” next Thursday at 8am. Please contact the Senate Judiciary Committee and urge them not to overturn 603 with a bill few will understand. And if anyone tells you that OFF is not telling the whole unvarnished truth, please let us know so we can set the record straight,
Contact info and sample message follow:
SENATE JUDICIARY.
Floyd Prozanski CHAIR
sen.floydprozanski@state.or.us
900 Court St. NE, S-417, Salem, OR, 97301
503-986 -1704
Brian Boquist Vice Chair
sen.brianboquist@state.or.us
900 Court St. NE., S-305, Salem, OR, 97301
503-986-1712
Susanne Bonamici
sen.suzannebonamici@state.or.us
900 Court St. NE., S-403, Salem, OR, 97301
503-986-1717
Jackie Dingfelder
sen.jackiedingfelder@state.or.us
900 Court St. NE., S-407, Salem, OR, 97301
503-986-1723
Doug Whitsett
sen.dougwhitsett@state.or.us
900 Court St. NE., S-303, Salem, OR, 97301
503-986-1728
__________________________________________________________________
Dear Senator,
SB 1008 is a dangerous and complicated answer to a problem that may not exist. I urge you not to reverse the corrections made by SB 603 with a bill few people will understand. Everyone agrees that this bill will need more work in the future. Why not wait until you have a full session to examine the issues before passing a bill that will make a person who had a technical violation of an arcane gun law ineligible from requesting rights restoration forever?
I urge you to leave SB 603 in place until 2011 when if there actually are problems, they can be examined and dealt with.
Sincerely yours,
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