As expected, if a bit later than expected, the Oregon legislature (well some Oregon legislators who don’t want their names used) have introduced or drafted new anti-rights bills.
If you recall, in 2009, we passed SB 603 which not only defined the term “readily accessible” for the purposes of having a handgun in your car, but also corrected the weird anomaly in Oregon law that allowed a person with a felony conviction to petition to have his rights restored to BUY a gun but was still forbidden from OWNING it.
That bill passed both houses without a single “no” vote (actually passing the Senate twice) and was signed into law by the Governor. During the 2010 “special” session, the person responsible for SB 603, Senator Floyd Prozanski, decided he’d made a terrible mistake and tried to reverse it. Your activism prevented that from happening. But he promised to be back, and now he is with SB 762.
762 will forbid anyone from seeking firearms rights restoration for 10 years after conviction or completion of sentence, whichever is later. Since 603 passed, some persons with felony convictions have successfully gotten their rights restored, and some have not, proving the new law was working. We have heard of no cases where a person got his rights restored and then committed a crime with a gun. And when you think about it, why would someone with criminal intent go to a court and ask to legally be able to own guns? We will keep you posted on this bill’s progress.
There are two other new pieces of anti-gun legislation that only exist as drafts at this point. They will, no doubt, be in bill form shortly.
1668 is one more attempt at a “lock up your self defense” law.
3368 outlaws the “transfer for consideration” of “large capacity” magazines. Presumably you can still give them away. And of course, the ban would not apply to police. While neither of these drafts have anyone’s name attached to them, we’re willing to go way out on a limb and guess who’s behind them.
We are still working to get hearings on several bills we consider important this session including HB 2789, HB 2791, HB 2793 and HB 2797.
Your continued efforts to get hearings on these bills is greatly appreciated.