HB 4145, Kate Brown’s gun confiscation bill, passed the Oregon House today on a 37 to 23 vote.
The bill got the vote of every House Democrat except Caddy McKewon,who has supported previous gun confiscation bills. She must be reading her mail.
Republican Andy Olson, who voted for the bill in committee, listened to his constituents and voted NO on the floor. If you live in Olson’s district you may want to let him know you approve of his change of position.
Three Republicans joined the Democrats and voted yes on this dangerous and pointless attack on your rights. They were Richard Vial, Julie Parrish and Knute Buehler.
As you know, Buehler is running for governor against Kate Brown, although based on his vote today, it’s difficult to understand why. We already have one leftist anti-gun candidate. Seems like no reason for two.
As you might expect, the floor debate included a lot of opportunistic tears and disgraceful exploitation of the horrific murders in Florida yesterday. The fact that this legislation had absolutely nothing to do with crimes of this kind didn’t matter. Never let a catastrophe go to waste.
Democrat Jeff Barker, one of the co-carriers of the billonce again recounted a story of a domestic violence crime scene he responded to as a police officer. It really was aterrible and tragic story. And nothing in this bill would have changed the outcome of that crime in any way.
Democrat Jeneen Sollman tearfully recounted growing up with an abusive, alcoholic father who chased her and her mother out of the house tossing ice chests at them.A story we would all agree is heartbreaking, but once again, unless her parents were living together after the issuance of a restraining order (which is not legal) a story that had absolutely zero relevance to this bill.
The bill now moves over to the Senate. We have no intention of letting up the pressure to stop this attack on the safety of women and the rights of gun owners.
The sad and ignored fact is that there is not a single word in this bill that would make a victim of domestic violence any safer. There is not a single word to protect the rights of the falsely accused. It is nothing more than another blow against freedom and common sense.
Stay tuned and active. We will continue to inform you of this bill’s progress and what you can do to stop it.
HB 4145, Kate Brown’s gun confiscation bill, was scheduled to be voted on today in the Oregon House.
However the bill has been pushed back to tomorrow’s floor session.
While this is potentially bad news since it’s possible they delayed it to have time to make it worse, it does give us at least one more day to voice our opposition to this dangerous legislation.
We told you about the dangers of this bill in a previous alert.
Please take a moment to express your opposition to HB 4145 one more time.
Today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, SJM 202 was passed on a party line vote. We told you about this pointless but expensive attack on gun rights here. It was sent to the Rules Committee in an apparent procedural move to prevent Republicans from offering substitute language. We still urge you to voice your opposition to it. You can do that using this link.
Bad things are happening fast in Salem. Please make your voice heard now.
HB 4145 is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow in the Oregon House.
If passed, this bill would allow anyone you have ever had an “intimate relationship” with to demand that your firearms be confiscated.
As you know from a previous alert, people who make false allegations of abuse face very little chance of being prosecuted for their crimes. That’s what makes this bill so dangerous. If you are accused, you are guilty.
Republicans Richard Vial and Andy Olson joined the gun grabbers and voted for this bill in committee assuring it would go to the floor for a vote.
You may want to take a moment to express your outrage that they would vote to attack the rights of the people who elected them to appease the anti-rights left that controls the Oregon Legislature.
You may also want to urge Republican Leader Mike McLane to do all he can to assure that no more Republicans abandon their constituents and vote for this nonsense.
But please take just one moment to send a message to the whole House that you oppose this senseless and dangerous assault on your rights, your freedom, and common sense.
One Wednesday, Feb 14, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing for SJM 202 at 8AM. (This is the same day the full House will hear HB.4145, the Governor’s confiscation bill.)
This “memorial” urges the US Congress to “regulate rapid fire enhancing accessories, such as bump stocks, in the same manner as fully automatic weapons.” It is the work of Senate President Peter Courtney.
As anyone with any knowledge of firearms knows, a “rapid fire enhancing accessory” could be an aftermarket trigger or even your finger. Of course it could also be a rubber band.
The “memorial” also calls on Congress to regulate 80% lowers as though they were actual complete firearms.It calls on Congress to require background checks on “partially completed firearms kits” andprohibit the transfer of a “completed firearm without a serial number and background check,” something already prohibited under Federal law.
This memorial is clearly the work of people who have no idea what they are talking about.
The “memorial” has no force of law, but it certainly is a roadmap for what we can expect from the legislature in the future.
The Oregon Democrats are using your money to urge Congress to restrict your rights and they are doing it in your name.
This is an outrageous misuse of taxpayer dollars.
Please take a moment to let the Oregon Senate know how you feel about this.
Republicans Sherrie Sprenger and Bill Post stood up for your rights and voted “no.”
Duane Stark was excused, but that counts as a “no” vote as well.
It is hard to overstate the danger this bill presents, just as it is hard to overstate how deceitful or ignorant its proponents are.
The bill as passed out of committee extends the definition of “family member” to anyone you have ever had an “intimate relationship” with in your entire life.
This was done to create a larger universe of people whose gun rights can be taken if someone requests a protective order against them. The bill also calls for firearms confiscation of anyone “convicted of stalking under ORS 163.732”.This does not mean someone who has violated a “stalking order” this means anyone who had an order sworn out against them no matter what they had done.
Of course, the bill contains not one single word of protection for people who are falsely accused, and there are plenty of them.
The proponents of the bill claim that existing law protects the accused because making a false report is a crime.Tell that to Shane Morgan.
On Feb. 9 the Bend Bulletin published a lengthy story about the hell he went through when a girlfriend, Kambria Armstrong, created an elaborate web of lies to destroy his life.
The story reminded readers of past headlines. “Bend man accused of forcing teen into sex work” and “Court records detail deranged, illegal relationship.”
According to the Bulletin; “The fallout was swift and severe, he told The Bulletin through his lawyer, Jamie Gerlitz. He lost a job. His roommates kicked him out. He felt scared everywhere he went. But it became clear the stories told by Morgan’s accuser, Kambria Armstrong, were not believable.”
After months of torment and legal nightmares the truth came out.So what happened to his accuser? What happened to the woman who fabricated these vicious lies?
According to the Bulletin:
“(DA)Hummel said his office considered charges of filing a false police report against Armstrong. He said he decided against it in part because it would have been difficult to prove her misstatements were intentional. He also said he worries doing so could have a chilling effect on survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, who might worry no one will believe their accounts and they’ll be charged with a crime.”
This is an outrage and exactly what we have been warning the legislature about. Domestic violence, like any violence, is a deadly serious issue. People who are victims of abuse or who are genuinely in fear for their lives deserve all the protection they can get. But this bill is a charade. This is not about keeping women safe. And the people pushing this travesty know it.
Time after time we hear stories of the victims of abuse and violence. And time after time it is clear that this bill would have prevented virtually none of it. The backers of this bill keep perpetuating the dangerous fantasy that a piece of paper will keep a woman safe from a dangerous and violent attacker. Yet, from the supporters of this bill, we keep hearing stories of people who either violated protective orders, or were never subject to them in the first place.
Even the Chairman of the Committee, Jeff Barker, justified his support for the bill by recounting an incident of domestic violence he responded to as a police officer. What he did not mention was this bill would have had no effect whatsoever on that incident or its outcome.
HB 4145 protects no one. If the State of Oregon wanted to protect women it would stop squandering millions on fiasco projects and failing agencies and spend more on services and shelters for victims of abuse.
If it wanted to protect women it would notprohibit them from having the means to protect themselves or subject them to indefinite delays to acquire self defense tools. It would not require them to wait a month and a half to be allowed to be armed when they leave their homes. But the Democrats in the legislature have rejected efforts to provide those tools for at risk women.
What HB 4145 does is create new and more dangerous tools for vindictive people to steal the rights of those who have done nothing wrong. Because there are already plenty of laws to address people who have done something wrong.
Please use this link to contact the members of the Oregon House and tell them in no uncertain terms that you strongly oppose HB 4145 and the damage it will certainly do.
Kate Brown’s firearms confiscation bill, HB 4145 passed out of the House Judiciary Committee today with the help of Republicans Andy Olson and Richard Vial.
Representatives Post and Sprenger voted no, Representative Duane Stark was excused.
The bill included the “dash 2” amendment which made the bill only slightly less awful.
Under the “dash 2” amendment a person who DID NOT contest a restraining order would not automatically lose their gun rights as they did in the original bill.
Militant anti-gunner Jennifer Williamson expressed her disapproval of the amendment and promised to keep working to expand gun prohibitions.
The bill still requires people who have been the respondents of “stalking orders” to give up firearms even if they have never violated the order.
The bill still expands the definition of “family members” to anyone you have ever had an “intimate relationship” with.
This is still very, very dangerous legislation.
We will follow up soon with suggested actions to fight this bill in the full House.
After two hours of testimony led by the Governor (who requested this bill) they held off a vote until Friday.
That means you have time to contact them one more time and express your opposition to this dangerous legislation.
This bill will expand the definition of “family member” to anyone you have ever had an “intimate relationship” with in your entire life. Those people will now be able to request orders that prohibit you from owning a firearm!
The law punishes people who comply with stalking and restraining orders. It’s just plain nuts.
We know these orders are used to harass people and are often based on false allegations, we also know judges in Oregon rubber stamp them and virtually no one is ever prosecuted for providing false information.
The clock is ticking but there is still time to voice your opposition.
As you know, the House Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear HB 4145 on Wednesday at 1pm in Hearing Room 50. (Hearing Room 50 is in the basement of the Capitol Building.)
You can rest assured that the room will be packed by a rent-a-mob bussed in by Michael Bloomberg.
The committee has announced its expectation of a large turn out and as such will start taking sign ups for testimony at noon.
If you plan on testifying, please arrive early.
Here is what you need to know about HB 4145.
This bill has been extensively marketed as “closing the boyfriend loophole.”Since it’s not the “intimate partner” loophole, or the “lesbian lover” loophole it’s clear that this bill is targeting men, men who own firearms.
Currently the law allows the state to confiscate firearms from people who are the subject of orders that prohibit them from “stalking, intimidating, molesting or menacing an intimate partner.”
Oddly, under Oregon law, “intimate partner” does not mean a person with whom you are having, or have had, sex. “Intimate partner” means the person’s spouse, the person’s former spouse, a parent of the person’s child or another person who has cohabited or is cohabiting with the person in a relationship akin to a spouse.
This bill seeks to expand the list of people who are “protected” by a restraining order to “family or household members.”What this means is that if the person who gets the restraining order against you is a “family or household member” you will now be prohibited from owning firearms.
While this would seem to make little sense, when you look at the definition they want to use for “family or household member” you’ll start to understand. Here it is:
“Family or household members” means any of the following:
(a) Spouses.
(b) Former spouses.
(c) Adult persons related by blood or marriage.
(d) Persons cohabiting with each other.
(e) Persons who have cohabited with each other or who have been involved in a sexually intimate relationship.
(f) Unmarried parents of a minor child.
You read that right. Under this bill, anyone you ever had a sexual relationship with is now your “family member” and can request an order that forbids you from having firearms.
But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is a little detail from page 1 of the bill.
On line 10 the bill adds the following language to the law:
(ii) Remains in effect after the person received notice of the opportunity to request a hearing in which to be heard on the order, and declined to request a hearing during the time period in which the opportunity was available; (emphasis added)
What this means in English is this,
If a court issues a restraining order against you under current law, you have the option to contest it to attempt to “prove” your innocence. You will most likely lose, but you have the option. However, under Federal law, if you do this and the order is upheld, you lose your gun rights under Federal law.
However, if you don’t contest it and the court has not ordered a gun prohibition, you don’t lose your gun rights. In other words, if you agree to comply with the order, no matter how false the accusations, you don’t automatically lose your gun rights.
Under the section quoted above, you lose your gun rights even if you comply.And this is the whole point of this bill and something the anti-gunners have been pushing for 15 years.
At one time they were actually pushing legislation that would allow the person who requested the restraining order to force you to contest it just so they could strip you of your rights under Federal law.
Make no mistake, this bill has nothing to do with keeping women safe. As anyone who lives in the real world will tell you, restraining orders don’t keep people safe. And this state actually punishes women who are real victims of domestic violence by forbidding them to be armed to protect themselves.
But restraining orders do provide a convenient and easy way for angry peopleto ruin other people’s lives, force them from their homes and steal their property.
The reality is that people who comply with a restraining orders are not dangerous anddangerous people will ignore restraining orders and any weapons prohibition.
But safety is not what this bill is about. Punishment and harassment of gun owners is what it’s about.
Note that nowhere in the bill is there a single word of protection for the falsely accused.
This bill is quite simply a pay-off from Kate Brown and her fellow travelers in the Oregon Legislature for the big bucks Mike Bloomberg used to buy elections.
That’s why it’s so important that you make your voice heard to oppose this bill as written.
If you can come to the hearing and testify, that would be the best thing, but just showing up helps. If you cannot come you can upload your testimony against the bill via email at:
The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing for HB 4145 on Feb 7 at 1pm in Hearing Room 50. This is the bill Kate Brown requested to repay Michael Bloomberg for the $250,000.00 dollars he sent her.
The bill is intended to strip rights away from even more gun owners who have never been convicted of a crime. To read more and take action click here.
We have seen the first anti-gun bills of the 2018 legislative session. You can see them here.
As always we will continue to update this list as more gun control bills are added.
The first is a “Senate Joint Memorial” by Peter Courtney calling on the US Congress to ban or regulate modern firearms as well as “devices” that allow firearms to shoot more rapidly. As you know, these devices include shoe laces which the ATF as determined are actually machine guns. (No, this is not a joke.)
The second, HB 4145, requested by Kate Brown, vastly expands the category of people who will be prohibited from owning firearms. We will monitor these and any new bills and keep you informed of their progress.
The Oregon Firearms Federation urges a “no” vote on Measure 101.
You might be wondering why OFF would take a position on a tax measure. Bear with us and we’ll explain.
No matter what your personal feelings are about a liberal policy that fines you if you don’t have health insurance and taxes you if you do, no matter if you can afford to add an “assessment ” to your already staggering health insurance premiums, no matter if you are willing to overlook a misleading ballot title and an election date that was engineered by liberals in Salem to undermine the voting process, this measure will have a profound effect on your gun rights in 2018 and beyond.
Here is why.
While the “short” session held in even numbered years was sold to us as simply a way to deal with urgent budget issues, it is anything but. There are no limits to the issues, no matter how complex, that can be voted on in short sessions.
We have seen over and over how votes are taken on issues that have not been adequately studied and examined. Measures are rushed through the legislature with little opportunity for public input and little time for legislators to fully understand the ramification of their votes.
The anti-gun majority in Salem has made no secret of their intention to continue their assaults on your gun rights, and thanks to out of state billionaires, they have the votes to do it.
Pro liberty forces are outspent 10-1 by money coming from New York anti-gun extremist, Mike Bloomberg. That kind of money buys a lot of incompetence, and a lot of anti-gun votes. (It’s interesting to note that local anti-gun groups contribute only tiny amounts of money to local candidates demonstrating how weak their grass roots actually are.)
So what does all this have to do with a tax on health insurance? Simple. The same anti-gun leftists who rammed through bills to make it a crime to safeguard a firearm for a friend (SB 941) and to allow confiscations of firearms with no accusation of a crime and no due process (SB 719) are the ones who are pushing for taxes on one of your most expensive needs, health insurance.
They want this money to fund their pet projects, even though over and over we have seen them squander millions through ineptitude and cronyism and a clear inability to deal with any matter concerning health care. If they are able to keep this windfall they will have very little to occupy their time except more gun control.
“If voters affirm the funding plan, though, Williamson has other priorities that she may have time to press, including making another push for increased restrictions on gun ownership.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a fellow Democrat, renewed her support for further restricting gun ownership in the wake of the October shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas.” Portland Tribune Oct 31 2017
As you know, they are both recipients of massive donations from Mike Bloomberg and are committed to doing his bidding. So you can see, if the Democrats get to keep this money, they will have little to keep them busy except to work on additional attacks on your rights.
We strongly urge you to keep them busy with other things and vote “no” on Measure 101.
OFF wishes you and yours a happy and free New Year and thanks you for your support fighting for freedom.
Today the “National Reciprocity Act” passed the US House on a 231-198 vote.
While national reciprocity would be a good thing for gun owners, and override Oregon’s ridiculous refusal to recognize a single other state’s concealed handgun license, the bill was coupled with terrible legislation dubbed “Fix NICS”.
Unfortunately “Fix NICS” vastly expands the flawed and failed Brady background check law and will no doubt ensnare many more people who will be denied their right to purchase a firearm as a result offaulty background checks.
“Fix NICS” was supported by anti-gun organizations as well as NRA and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, always a troubling alliance.
Ultimately no amount of legislation is going tochange the fact that human error is responsible for the mess that the background check system is.
Now many people who are in no way dangerous or “criminal” are going to be added to the list of prohibited people. Nothing in the legislation provides any recourse for persons falsely denied.
The bill faces a very uncertain future in the Senate where it is quite possible that the reciprocity language could be stripped out leaving us with only more gun control.
It that happens, when the bill goes back to the House, the supporters of reciprocity will have a hard time opposing the new gun control they voted for.
As you no doubt know, pro-gun Republican Senator Jeff Kruse was recently stripped of all his committee assignments by anti-gun Democrat Senate President Peter Courtney.
For those who may not be too familiar with how our legislature operates, this punishment essentially makes Kruse incapable of having any influence on legislation, a job voters in his district have reelected him numerous times to do.
The explanation for this unprecedented, and possibly career ending, punishment was an allegation by Democrat Senator Sara Gelser that Kruse had engaged in sexual harassment against her by what has been described as “non-sexual inappropriate touching.” Oh, yeah, andKruse also smokes in his office.
After this story started making the rounds, we posted a Facebook post that acknowledged that yes indeed, Kruse has smoked in his office. We have actually seen this transgression.
We also commented that if (as of now totally unproven) allegations that he was groping Sara Gelser were true, he might need an eye test. On Tuesday October 24th, we deleted that post after considering how it easily it could be construed to be an attack on Gelser’s appearance and how that was hardly the point.Soon after, there were several media stories commenting on that post and stating how it simply proved that there is an ingrained culture of sexual harassment in Salem, and that we were essentially guilty of it ourselves.
So, now, (since the media considers our commentary newsworthy) we’d like to clarify and expand on those remarks.
First, it’s important to note that Gelser claims that Kruse’s “inappropriate ” touching has been going on, literally, for years. But as far as we can tell, Gelser chose to keep this from the public until she climbed on the Hollywood Hashtag bandwagon following the revelations that a powerful, millionaire, Democrat donor and movie producer was abusing, harassing and allegedly raping young and aspiring starlets.
That, of course, would be Harvey Weinstein, a man who has publicly stated that he HATES guns and promised to singlehandedly “take down” the NRA. Oh, and he also produced such anti-gun classics as“Kill Bill.” As stated, Weinstein is a big donor to Democrats. In the past he sent money to Oregon Democrats.
None of Weinstein’s crimes and disgusting behavior were any secret in Hollywood. They were, of course, kept secret from the public by the mainstream, liberal dominated, media who also knew about his actions but spiked stories, because, well that’s what the left does for each other.
After the revelations were made public, numerous actresses who had been assaulted or otherwise abused by Weinstein started a Twitter campaign to let the world know what they all knew, or had experienced themselves, and kept silent about for years. It was then, and only then, that Gelser decided to join the chorus with her own Tweet. The implication was clear. Although at first she would not name names, she soon made it known that is was Kruse she was accusing.
As far as we can tell, most, or at least many, of the transgressions Gelser has accused Kruse of have taken place on the Senate Floor. It is hard to imagine a more public, populated and videotaped place on Earth.Not only can anyone watch the proceedings on any computer, but the galleries above the chamber provide a bird’s eye view for any member of the public who choses to go there.
In this forum, surrounded by Senators, staff, reporters, police, the public and constant video surveillance, is where Kruse’s alleged outrageous behavior took place….for years. Of course, sitting at the front of this august chamber, high above the floor, with possibly the best view of all, stands the man who stripped Kruse of his committee assignments, Senate President Peter Courtney, who like so many others within spitting distance of the accused…saw nothing, for years. It’s all rather remarkable.
Now in the wake of Gelser’s accusations, the media is publishing quotes from other women (many unnamed) who work in the Capitol in one capacity or another. They include legislators and lobbyists.There is common agreement that there is a pervasive atmosphere of “good old boy” sexual harassment and bad behavior. It’s everywhere, and women there have been too afraid of a negative impact on their careers to talk about it before.
Clearly, politics under the dome in Salem is a damn hostile place for a woman. It’s a wonder they are willing to work there at all given how little opportunity they have.
So it really is hard to understand how we have a female governor, our last two Secretaries of State have been women and the Speaker of the House is a woman.
Almost 30% of all Senators are women. 35% of Democrat Senators are women. 22 of 60 House reps (or over 36 %) are women .
Over 54% of Democrat House members are women. (19 of 35)
As expected, Governor Brown issued a statement about inappropriate touching saying it was “unacceptable.”
Kate apparently does not hold herself to the same standard. We have it on good authority that Kate is not very close to Sheriff Glenn Palmer.
Kate Brown Getting Too Close to Sheriff Glenn PalmerKate Brown Inappropriately Touching Sheriff Glenn Palmer
Women hold positions of enormous power in Oregon, and Sara Gelser is one of them.
Gelser is no shrinking violet. She is an affluent, powerful member of the Senate who has no qualms about using slash and burn campaign tactics, including lying about her opponents supporters to get elected. She is a member of the ruling party. And yet..
Gelser alleges that Kruse’s inappropriate behavior began in 2011. That is 5 years before she made any official complaint. 5 lonely years of hell. But Gelser did not even get elected to the Senate until 2015. She and Kruse never served in the House together. When she was elected to the House for the first time, Kruse had already moved onto the Senate.So apparently, Kruse was making his way over to the House to touch her for years. And no one noticed that either.
House Speaker Tina Kotek’s legislative biography says “In 2013, Tina became the first openly lesbian speaker of any state house in the nation.”So Gelser served in the House under a lesbian woman for two years without mentioning to this powerful and very liberal person that a conservative Senator was coming over to their chamber to harass her.
(If you have any doubts about Kotek’s power and her willingness to exercise it, try being a pro-gun House Democrat. Sooner or later you will be neutered and groveling and voting for bills you oppose lest you face her wrath.)
During the years Jeff Kruse forced his unwanted attentions on her, Gelser either suffered in silence or, after 5 years, quietly asked others to intercede on her part. She never loudly and publicly rebuked him. She never slapped him, pushed him away or told him to leave his hands off her.
Former Democrat Senator Jackie Dingfelder also claims that Kruse “placed his hand on her back in an inappropriate way during a committee hearing in 2011 or 2012.” But Dingfelder said “…when Kruse placed his hand on her back she was clear with him that his touching was unwanted. She confronted Kruse then and there. ‘I said, ‘Jeff, don’t do that. That’s inappropriate. Don’t ever do that again.’ And he never did,’ she said.”
Apparently, this is the kind of complex verbal judo Gelser is incapable of.
Why?
Kruse has no power over her. He is not her boss, he is not her superior. He is in the minority party and, in many cases his vote, as a conservative, does not even matter. And where were all the male Democrat Senators while this unacceptable behavior was taking place? Surely such champions of women’s rights as Michel Dembrow and Floyd Prozanski would have leapt to her defense even if she was too intimated to do it herself, there on the Senate floor under the watchful eyes of thousands. Surely Mark Haas or Rod Monroe would have never stood for that. Where was Lew Fredrick and James Manning? Where the hell was “eye in the sky” Peter Courtney? This was going on for years. And if Gelser’s allegations are true, there were no real Democrat men in the House in the time she served there either.
Can anyone imagine what would happen to any man who inappropriately put his hands on Democrat Senator Betsy Johnson? He’d quickly find a walking cane coming down on his head. And Betsy doesn’t get around quite as fast as Sara these days.
So here’s the thing. There are three possibilities.
1) Jeff Kruse did what he is accused and no one except Gelser and Ginny Burdick noticed. If so he should change his name to Houdini.
2) Lots of people knew what he was doing but it was never caught on video and no one, except Burdick, (if you believe her) stepped up and confronted him.
3) Gelser is a disingenuous and opportunistic fabricator with a political agenda.
If it was number 2, then the entire DemocratCaucus is no better than all the Hollywood types who went along to get along with the Weinstein machine. And they are all cowards.
But no matter what, it is still an outrage for Gelser to attempt to associate whatever she alleges Kruse did with the fate of countless dewey eyed ingenues who just got off the bus from Peoria and fell into the clutches of the pig Weinstein in hopes of scoring a walk-on part.
Gelser is not some kid whose dreams of being on the big screen let her discard her ethics and morals or some innocent aspiring starlet who found herself locked in a hotel room with a raping dirtbag.
She is an aggressive, accomplished, powerful woman who claims to have been the “victim” of someone who had NO power over her…for years.
She is part of the cabal of anti-gun feminists who would much rather perpetuate the entrepreneurial victimhood of women than to ever encourage them to stand up for themselves and have the means to do it. She has advanced her own career while voting to make sure that the most vulnerable among us are denied the right to protect themselves and she has timed her accusations to deflect the reality that a massive donor to the causes she supports has finally been exposed to the public in spite of years of efforts by the media to protect him.
It’s understandable that the mainstream media would use our comments to imply thatwe are part of some mass movement to denigrate and belittle women. A quick review of our campaign contributions will make clear that we have spent thousands to support female candidates.For Gelser to imply that she is in the same boat as some kid with stars in her eyes who is abused by powerful man who controls her future is absurd.
When a Republican House Rep was discovered to have taken advantage of a young female subordinate, he was rightfully driven from office. We strongly supported that action. Women (and men who are harassedby powerful women…see “Amanda Marshall”)should never be subject to any kind of improper behavior by someone with power over them.
Following the disclosure that “bump fire” stocks may have been used by the killer in the Las Vegas massacre, the NRA said :
“Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law.”
Of course they comply with Federal law but the NRA lost no time jumping on board the gun control band wagon to demand that your rights be further eroded.
It would be easy to say that these stocks are not very useful, that it is very difficult to use them with any accuracy and they largely turn money into noise. But that’s not the point. Rest assured, the demands by the gun banners will not stop there, and now, once again, the NRA is giving comfort to the enemy in a display of ignorance and cowardice.
The fact is that banning these devices will have zero effect on anyone’s safety. For one thing, almost the same amount of carnage could have been created without them. Furthermore, with a bit of practice, a shooter can “bump fire” a rifle with NO modifications.
In fact, in a 2004 letter from Sterling Nixon, chief of BATF’s Firearms Technology Branch, Nixon determined that a shoelace was a machine gun. Yes a shoelace.
The letter said:
” In 1996,FTB examined and classified a 14 inch long shoestring with a loop at each end. The string was attached to the cocking handle of a semi-automatic rifle and was looped around the trigger and attached to the shooter’s finger. The device caused the weaponto fire repeatedly until finger pressure was released from the string. Because this item was designed and intended to convert a semi-automatic rifle into a machine gun, FTB determined that is was a machinegun as defined in 26 U.S.C. 5845 (b)”
They won’t stop at stocks.
The killer could not have used bump fire stocks if he did not use rifles. Why not ban them?
Rest assured it’s not just novelty accessories the gun grabbers, with the help of the NRA, are after.
Now is not the time to start caving.The NRA’s almost immediate capitulation was to be expected. In the coming days and months, there will be no end toefforts to ban modern firearms and standard magazines and we don’t expect to have much help from the people who declared that no one should have the ability to protect themselves in places that serve alcohol… after the bloody “Pulse” massacre. The same people who declared that nobody, no teacher, no school staff, no parent should be allowed to be armed in a school except uniformed police.
The endless and predictable comments about nobody “needing” this firearm or that accessory must not blind us to the fact that our rights are our rights and need no explanation or justification.
If you are an NRA member, now would be a good time to tell them plainly that you are not going to accept them crawling into bed with the gun grabbers.
On another note, today was the deadline to turn in signatures to refer SB 719, the Brian Boquist gun confiscation bill, to the ballot. Unfortunately the effort fell short.
In a press release, the committee to repeal SB 719 stated :
“It wasn’t for lack of support.We just simply did not have enough time.I blame Governor Kate Brown for that,” said Chief Petitioner Mike Nearman, who is also a State Representative from House District 23.
According to Article IV of the Oregon Constitution, petitioners have 90 days from the end of the Legislative Session in which the bill was passed, which was July 7, 2017.However, they cannot begin to gather signatures until the Governor signs the bill, which was not until August 15, 2017.
“The foot-dragging by Governor Brown cost us 39 of our 90 days.To make matters worse, she signed the bill on the Friday before the eclipse, so that cost us an extra three days.There was no reason to do this other than to keep us from gathering signatures and keep this issue from a vote of the people,” said State Representative Bill Post of House District 25, also a Chief Petitioner.”
Once again, the committee got no help from the NRA who refused to even acknowledge the effort.
It would have cost the NRA nothing to alert their members about this effort and direct them to the committee’s website, as Gun Owners of America did. But, as always, the NRA would rather “work with” gun grabbers than confront them. Thanks to everyone who signed a petition and rest assured that battle is not over.
We are in for a long, tough fight. We have seen how little we can expect from NRA. If you want to help us stand up to the coming attacks, please consider supporting our efforts. You can contribute here. Thank you.
