CHL PRIVACY BILL MOVES OUT OF COMMITTEE WITH MASSIVE AMENDMENTS.
Happy tax day.
Today, thousands of Oregonians gathered on the steps of the Capitol and demanded a return to rational government. Despite what some mainstream media outlets have reported, the crowd was tremendous and enthusiastic. Inside, a bill of great importance to many Oregon gun owners was being rendered unrecognizable.
House Bill 2727, a bill OFF has been working on since before the current session began, passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today.
The bill in no way resembles the original, clean and simple bill that Representative Kim Thatcher worked so hard and long to produce.
The bill is now a much longer, more complicated measure with far fewer protections for gun owners. While we believe that the bill as amended won’t hurt gun owners, in many respects it was simply a great leap…sideways.
The bill is no longer a “gun owners” bill. Now it simply empowers sheriffs to withhold license holders’ personal information if they want to, and release it if they want to.
The amendments, written by Democrat Judy Stielger, leave far to many options for abuse.
The amendments were adopted by the entire committee with the exception of Representative Kevin Cameron who supported the original bill and took a principled stand and voted NO on the amendments. We applaud Representative Cameron for standing up for gun rights and we want to thank Representative Kim Thatcher for months of hard work. She tried her best to pass the best bill she could. In the end, politics won out over policy.
The bill now moves to the full House.
Tomorrow, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a work session on HB 2991, a bill which would exempt CHL holders from background checks for firearms purchases. Based on how this session has unfolded, that bill could easily be pulled from the schedule. We will let you know.