HB 2792, “Gut and Stuffed” By The Senate, Passes House.
House Bill 2792 passed the Oregon House today. The bill started life as a recognition of other states’ concealed handgun licenses. In its original form it passed the House with wide bipartisan support. It was then sent to the Senate.
In the Senate all the original language was stripped out by Senator Floyd Prozanski and replaced with language that had nothing to do with accepting other states’ permits. Instead it took the language from HB 2797 that clarified lawful carry on motorcycles, snowmobiles and atv’s and added new language restricting, complicating and muddling the process for firearms rights restoration for persons with felony convictions.
You might wonder why the House did not just pass HB 2797. Well, they did. But when that got to the Senate, it was turned into a “no guns in schools” bill. 2792 is currently sleeping in the Senate Rules Committee, where we expect it to die the death it deserves. It never made it to the Senate floor for a vote because Senate President, Peter Courtney, had the good sense to prevent his Democrat colleagues from going on the record on this issue. What he lacks in ethics, he makes up in political acumen.
So back to HB 2792. After the Senate “gut and stuffed” the bill the House refused to concur in the Senate changes. A “conference committee” was assembled and the House members, who had refused to agree to the Senate amendments, accepted all the amendments. They did get one minor change from what the Senate had done, but it had no effect whatsoever on the changed bill and was meaningless.
After being postponed for a floor vote yesterday because of widespread confusion about what the bill did, the House took up the bill today and demonstrated that they still had no idea what the bill was about. The only House rep who really understood the bill and the changes made to it was its sponsor, Kim Thatcher, who in the end refused to vote for her own bill because it had been so badly mangled.
While the bill does contain some good and needed language to clarify carry on motorcycles, snowmobiles and atv’s the new restrictions on rights restoration will do nothing more than complicate and confuse the process, and for no reason. The current law is working exactly as it should. By the way, the current law was passed in 2009 without a single “no” vote in either House. Now, in spite of no problems with the law, the House has voted to roll over to the Senate’s changes because as Represent Wayne Krieger noted on the House floor, “you don’t want to run your campaign” having given guns to felons! But of course, every member who was there in 2009 voted for that very language and it was never a campaign issue.
Krieger also said that it probably “not the intention” of the legislature to pass the 2009 bill which established the current law. That’s an interesting statement. No one voted against it. No one.
If all of them were so confused by that bill in 2009, we have to wonder if they read this bill. Based on the comments made by several of the supporters of this version of the bill, they have not read this one either.
The motorcycle language is good and the change was overdue. We are pleased it was adopted. The language dealing with felons will effect very few of us. But those who it will effect will no-doubt face the same confusion and frustration that some are facing as a result of the changes made in 2009 to share mental health records with the Feds. The bureaucratic nightmares that created don’t impact many, but those that are impacted face really unfair hurdles.
It’s disappointing that so many voted to roll over to the tiny fringe of anti-rights zealots in the Senate, but that’s where we are at. The bill will need to go back to the Senate for a final vote where we expect it to pass.
There were actually two votes on HB 2792 today. The first was a vote to accept the changes made by the “conference committee. (Basically agreeing to everything the Senate did). You can see that vote count here. The second was on adopting the bill itself. You can see that vote count here.