The coming weeks will be busy ones for gun rights in Oregon. But first, Oregon gun owners should know that both their US Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, cast an important vote on April 2nd.
Wyden and Merkley both voted AGAINST an amendment to a Senate budget bill that would have allowed law abiding gun owners to transport firearms in their checked bags when traveling on the perennially broke, but taxpayer funded, Amtrak.
That’s right. Wyden and Merkley voted to prevent you from legally transporting a firearm on a train, something you can do on an airplane.
Amtrak, which should be considered “light rail” because it’s rarely weighed down by passengers, is chronically broke. Apparently, both Merkley and Wyden want to keep it that way. Thankfully, other states elected enough senators who think clearly and the amendment passed.
MONDAY APRIL 13th.
Oral arguments in the Medford Teacher Lawsuit.
Our appeal of the court decision denying public school employees their right to self defense will be heard at 9am at the University of Oregon School of Law. The address is 1515 Agate Street, Eugene Oregon. Room 241. (Be advised, the classroom will be considered a “courtroom” and as such it will be unlawful for license holders to be armed in the room.) Fittingly,students at OSU are hosting a “Second Amendment Week” starting on this day. We have been reliably informed that the school administration is so nervous, they have requested State Police in riot gear. No, we are NOT making this up.
The following bills are to be dealt with in the House Judiciary Committee. The committee meets at 1 PM in Room 357. These proceedings can be viewed live online here or here. Note, the video feed is on 24 hours a day, so you can check your connection before the dates of the work sessions. There is no audio feed until the proceedings start. Please keep in mind that the chairman can remove any bill from the schedule with no notice. Even if the bill is listed on online committee schedules at the time of the meeting, the listed bills can be bypassed.
Tuesday April 14th
Work session, House Bill 2463 which would recognize other states’ handgun licenses. Note, this bill previously passed out of this committee with amendments that would have allowed gun owners, from states that don’t require licenses, to carry in Oregon. Democrats on the committee had a collective fit and the bill was returned to committee to be reconsidered. Because this bill has been delayed extensively, we believe there may be restrictive amendments introduced at the work session. They will most likely not be available prior to to the work session.
Wednesday April 15th
Work session, HB 2727 to protect the privacy of concealed handgun licensees. Members of the committee have requested far-reaching amendments which could render this bill pointless. If they are adopted, we would support the decision of members (who supported the original bill) if they voted “no” on the final bill.
We are still hoping to have the bill passed with its original protections. Some committee members might vote “no” on any protections for CHL holders, but for the ones who supported the original bill we have made it clear we would understand a “no” vote on a gutted bill which would only serve as political cover with no real benefits for gun owners.
Thursday April 16th
Work session, HB 2991. This bill exempts CHL holders from background checks for gun purchases. It is likely that if this bill passes, the Feds will try to block it.
Monday April 20th
HB 2853.This is the mental health records transfer we warned you about in a previous alert.The bill summary says “Expands prohibition on possessing and transferring firearm to include person found guilty except for insanity of misdemeanor” but ten pages of amendments have turned it into a huge data dump of personal information to the Obama administration and the FBI. These changes are being made to force Oregon to submit to federal legislation that could dramatically damage the gun rights of veterans.
Senate Judiciary Chairman, Floyd Prozanski, has promised to hold hearings on at least two bills in his committee to clarify or correct Oregon gun laws. As of now, he has scheduled nothing. The deadlines for these actions are fast approaching.