Three gun related bills will be heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Feb.24th at 1pm in hearing room 357.
All three bills are positive changes for gun owners and we urge you to contact the House Judiciary Committee members and ask them to vote yes on all three bills. Also, please contact your own legislator if he or she is not a member of the committee and tell them that you support the bills and expect them to support the bills as well.
The three bills are;
HB 2463
This bill “Provides persons licensed to carry concealed handgun in another state with protections provided to persons with Oregon concealed handgun license.”
The value of this bill is obvious. With so many states now recognizing CHLs from other locations, Oregon is long overdue to get on board. We have made numerous attempts to achieve this in the past only to face legislative obstruction or vetoes. It’s time, and we urge its passage.
HB 2330
This bill is a bit more complicated, but very important to get Oregon law to make sense. Currently, a person who was convicted of only one felony, which did not involve a weapon or a homicide, can get his gun rights restored 15 years after being discharged from imprisonment, parole or probation. But, while that person can no longer be charged with “felon in possession” he would still be violating another statute that would make him guilty of misdemeanor unlawful possession of a firearm. Clearly this was never the intention of the legislature and is an error. This bill corrects that error and allows a person who made one mistake and has since led a law-abiding life to get his rights restored under Oregon law.
This bill requires that a person could not be convicted of unlawful firearms possession as the result of a past felony conviction, unless he knew of the felony conviction at the time he possessed the firearm. While this might seem like a no-brainer to many, the complicated machinations of the court very often leave a person unsure of what his conviction was actually for. In fact, we know of one case underway where a gun owner was charged with unlawful possession even though a previous charge had been reduced to a misdemeanor. The DA in the case is insisting that he was a “felon in possession” because the original charge was a felony. The court reduced it to a misdemeanor, so naturally the accused person logically assumed he was not a “felon.” The DA’s tortured interpretation of the law put this person in jeopardy, and this bill would correct these kinds of incidents.
Please contact the House Judiciary Committee and ask them to support these three bills.
A sample message and contact information follow:
__________________________________________________________________________
Dear Representative,
On Feb. 24th, you are scheduled to hear three bills in your House Judiciary Committee that would improve Oregon’s laws.
HB 2314 and HB 2330 clarify areas of Oregon law dealing with possession of firearms for persons with past felony convictions. I strongly believe these bills would provide needed corrections and improvements to Oregon law.
HB 2463 allows law-abiding visitors to Oregon to have the same access to self-defense they have in their own states. With so many other states extending these rights to Oregonians, I believe it is long past time that Oregon reciprocated.
Please support all three of these important bills.
Yours,
_____________________________
________________________________________________________________________