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.