Author: OFF

It’s All About “Leverage”

08.13.15

The anti-gun extremists are running scared. Today they filed an election complaint against the  Recall Floyd Prosanzki Campaign.

This is not a surprise. For the last week or so they have had operatives surveilling the locations where the recall petitions are available. These people included  “Makayla Yarbrough,” “Peggy Strickling,” and “Lynda Mc Millan”. At least one of these people was seen getting into a car with out of state plates.

As we told you before, they have also had people at locations where petition gatherers were working, disrupting the efforts of the campaign. 

The great irony of course is this is all being orchestrated by the big bucks “Oregon Democracy Fund.”  Nothing  says “democracy” like doing all you can to interfere with it.

Angela Martin, a paid hack from “Fulcrum Political” sent out a press release today with a list of bogus complaints. In her release she said “Clearly, the gun lobby extremists behind this reckless recall effort have no respect for the law…”

When the anti-rights zealots passed SB 941, they did it against the objections of most Oregon Sheriffs and Counties.  But it’s the “gun lobby extremists” who have “no respect for the law.” A brief review of “Fulcrum Political’s” client list will show you who has no respect for the law. (One of their principles, Mark Wiener, recently worked both sides of the fence in Portland where he brokered a deal with the ride sharing company Uber and the city officials he has taken big checks from.)

The “Oregon Democracy Fund,” in their hilarious press release, said “The nonpartisan Oregon Democracy Fund is organizing the Stop Reckless Recalls coalition to stop this abuse of Oregon’s recall process…”

They call themselves “non-partisan” and then go on to list their supporters: “Organizations including SEIU Local 503, Oregon Construction and Building Trades Council, Stand for Children – Lane County, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon Equality PAC, the Democratic Party of Lane County, Oregon Education Association, Oregon Nurses Association, Everytown for Gun Safety and Americans for Responsible Solutions.”

Yep, clearly “nonpartisan.”

The billionaire anti-rights crowd is burying Oregon in out of state money to continue to erode your 2nd Amendment rights. They are doing all they can to derail the recall efforts. Keep in mind, any election law complaint will be decided by Oregon’s Secretary of State, a hard core leftist who was handpicked with no vote of the people by anti-gun militant Kate Brown, who herself became governor with no vote of the people.

“Fulcrum’s” Angela Martin, the hack behind this bogus complaint, can be reached at Angela@fulcrumpolitical.com  c. 503-810-9770

The recall campaign is getting down to the wire. The billionaires, and a cabal of leftist extremists, are doing all they can to, once again, thwart the will of the people.

We need all the help we can get.  Please consider whatever support you can provide with a donation to OFFPAC.

There is no question we will be hugely outspent. The freedom haters will stop at nothing. Let’s do all we can to stand in their way.

08.06.15

Just a few days before the universal gun owner registration bill kicks in, it appears that the Oregon State Police are planning on collecting data on sellers of guns, not just buyers.

We’ve been telling you all along that SB 941 was never intended to be anything but a vast database of gun owners and now it’s being proven to be all too true.

Starting today, gun dealers are seeing a new interface on their computer screens when they log in to conduct a background check on a gun sale. Now there is a box they can check for “Private Party Through Dealer.”  While not fully functional, it is clear that the Oregon State Police plan to demand, and database, personal information on the seller, or transferor, of the firearm.

As of today, if a dealer checks the “Private Party Through Dealer” box they cannot actually enter the personal info of the seller, but they do get an error message  saying “Alert!!!Please adjust for the following errors and try again” It then lists all the info “not supplied.” This includes the seller’s name, address, city, state and zip and their phone number.

Nowhere in the Prozanski/ Hoyle bill is any of this data mining authorized.  But hey, if you are creating a gun owner database you want all gun owners, not just people who are receiving guns.

Are the State Police planning on running background checks on the sellers of guns too?  Are they going to send out a trooper if the seller  fails a “background check?”  What’s next?

This is a very disturbing development and one that proves once again what the true intent of this bill was.

Be warned, every transfer under SB 941 will become a vehicle to harass and intimidate gun owners.  It’s only going to get worse from here.

We urge you to call bill sponsor Val Hoyle and demand that she end tracking of gun sellers. Hoyle can be reached in her Salem office at 503-986-1414 and her district office at 541-221-9162.

You can support OFF’s efforts to protect your gun rights here.

07.30.15

On Tuesday, with very little fanfare or attention, the City Council of McMinnville unanimously passed a pointless and unenforceable ban on loaded carry.

In an email to OFF, the McMinnville City Attorney said “We discussed that our police officers could not walk up to someone openly carrying and demand that they show whether the gun was loaded or not unless there were (sic) probable cause.  We discussed that, if someone wanted to, s/he could simply keep walking and not engage with an officer at all.”

She also said “While I would not say there’s been an “issue” with people carrying in our parks, I would say that the incidents are increasing and that interest in the subject is increasing.” She  added “Police Chief Matt Scales was present at the meeting and stated that he supported the ordinance restricting the open carrying of loaded firearms in public places.  He said he believes it’s the City’s duty to ensure that public places are safe for children and adults to enjoy without the fear of someone openly carrying a loaded weapon.”

CHL holders are not affected and non chl holders can open carry if unloaded. And police have no authority to determine if guns are loaded or not. So really, what was the point?

It seems McMinnville is hoping to become the new “go to” location for open carry protesters.

City Council of McMinnville

	Alan Ruden Phone: 503-435-2412 alan.ruden@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 2 Term Expires: 12/31/2018 Occupation: Builder/Developer
	Scott Hill Phone: 503-434-5547 scott.hill@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 1 Term Expires: 12/31/2016 Occupation: Banker (Retired)
	Kellie Menke Phone: 503-472-2742 kellie.menke@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 2 Term Expires: 12/31/2016 Occupation: Certified Public Accountant (Retired)
	Kevin Jeffries, Council President Phone: 503-434-8998 kevin.jeffries@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 1 Term Expires: 12/31/2018 Occupation: Legislative Aide for State of Oregon
	Remy Drabkin Phone: 503-560-2003 remy.drabkin@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 3 Term Expires:  12/31/2018 Occupation:  Winery Owner – Winemaker
	Larry Yoder Phone: 503-472-4419 larry.yoder@ci.mcminnville.or.us Ward: 3 Term Expires: 12/31/2016 Occupation: Business Owner (Retired)

07.30.15

Neal Knox once famously said, “If you’re taking flak you must be over the target.”  Well, we must be over the target folks.

With over a month left before signatures have to be turned in, the Recall Prozanski campaign is out performing expectations. So, as you can imagine, the nanny staters are out in force doing everything they can to interfere with, harass, and tamper with signature gathering efforts.

The Oregon Citizens to Recall Senator Floyd Prozanski have issued a formal election law complaint against the “Oregon Democracy Fund” and the Lane County Fair for their efforts to block and harass people who are alerting voters to Prozanski’s twisted record of supporting felons and rapists and attacking law abiding gun owners.

Pam Duffy, the Chief Petitioner for the Prozanski recall, said in a press release ” Our circulators were illegally harassed by employees of the Oregon Democracy Fund at the Lane County Fair, stopping them from gathering signatures on our recall petition. That clearly violates established Oregon law and we want the Secretary of State to investigate and fine them for each person they stopped from signing our petition.”

The complaint also alleges that Lane County Fair employees illegally stopped recall petition circulators from canvassing inside the fairgrounds and even confiscated the circulators’ clipboards and petitions while they were inside the fairgrounds. Looks like Floyd’s enablers hate the First Amendment as much as the Second. While the signature gatherers lost many valuable signatures as a result of the petty harassment from the women of the “Oregon Democracy Fund” it also proves that these freedom haters are scared.

In the press release Pam Duffy said “We are discussing our legal options beyond making the election law complaint as we believe that the individual employees of the fair and the Oregon Democracy Fund are personally liable.”

Clearly the gun grabbers are on the run. We still have work to do to make this recall successful. But we are making great progress. We want to thank our friends at the Recall Chuck Riley campaign who donated the balance of their PAC account to our efforts.  This battle is costly but we are closing in.

We have no doubts Prozanski’s minions will be amping up their efforts to harass the recall campaign. We’re prepared for that.  Please consider helping us pay for this very, very, expensive, but critical effort.  You can make a donation to OFFPAC, which is currently the only organization to fund this effort here. Please be sure to pick “Political Action Committee” from the “Donation Category” drop down menu.

Donations to our PAC qualify for an Oregon tax credit so your contribution may cost you nothing.  Thanks for your continued fight for our rights.

07.14.15

The latest numbers are in from the State Police, and they once again prove what a massive fraud the background check system is and how much worse things will get when SB 941’s firearms transfer provisions kick in in early August.

While 129 transactions were denied in June (including 95 “felons”, 13 people actively “wanted”and 5 adjudicated mentally ill) the number of arrests was a bit smaller.

Of those 13 people actually “wanted” at the time of their denial exactly 1 was arrested. Of the 5 mentally ill people and 95 felons, the number of arrests was a whopping … zero.

So once again, we see the sham that the anti-gunners numbers are.  Virtually no one is prevented from getting a firearm because of background checks. They are just diverted from that gun at that time and place. But soon this ridiculous system is going to be used against you for transfers that now don’t require the failed intervention of the Oregon State Police.  Keep in mind, the OSP still has a policy of taking a trooper off patrol for every firearm’s transfer denial. What a tragic waste of scarce resources.

Maybe because this system is proving itself each day to be a joke (the shooter in the Charleston murders passed a background check) more and more sheriffs are making it clear they will not enforce the new registration, universal background check bill.

Last Saturday at a firearms event sponsored by the Josephine County Republicans with Rich Wyatt, the new Sheriff of the County stated unequivocally that neither he nor his deputies would enforce SB 941. Sheriff Dave Daniel called SB 941 a “waste of time” and a “travesty.”

We will keep working to expose the fraud that SB 941 is. The fight is not over.

07.05.05

07.02.15

Today, as the worst legislative session for gun rights in Oregon history slowly grinds towards a conclusion, the Yamhill County Commissioners signed Resolution 15-7-2-1.

This resolution states that Yamhill County will expend no county resources to enforce SB 941, the liberty smashing, gun registration bill. Once again, the lies told by Prozanski and Hoyle are being exposed.

Our sincere gratitude is extended to the courageous commissioners who joined their colleagues in Linn and Lane County to stand up to the tyranny of the Democrats in Salem.

With each passing day it becomes more clear how dangerous and unworkable 941 is. Thank you to everyone who contacted the commissioners and thank you to all the sheriffs who have publicly opposed this senseless attack on our rights and privacy and vowed not to enforce it.

07.01.15

As some of you noticed, this morning’s email about Yamhill County had the wrong date on it. Thank you to those who pointed that out, we have corrected it on the website.

Today the House Rules Committee adopted amendments to SB 315 and sent it to the House Floor for a vote.

315 started life as a bill that would allow gun stores and pawn shops to forward their registration records of used guns to the police electronically rather than by hand delivery or regular mail.

Since all used gun sales by dealers must be registered with the police and all “private” sales of guns will soon have to go through gun dealers, universal gun registration is about to become the law.

However, the bill was gut and stuffed by House Rep Brian Clem and it no longer has anything to do with electronic records.

Now the bill adds even more ambiguity to the registration bill, SB 941.

Clem demanded some “concessions” when he agreed to vote for the registration bill and the newly amended SB 315 is what he got.

We told you about this bill in the past. With the amendments adopted today, you will no longer face criminal charges if you lend a gun to another person (after having conducted a background check) and someone else commits a crime with it. That’s certainly an improvement, but the bill still creates more problems than it solves.

For example, while you will now be able to lend a gun to someone you “know” for seven days, (you still need to do a background check, you just don’t have to do it at a gun store) there is nothing in the bill that discusses what happens if the gun is not returned in 7 days.

There is nothing in the law that  discusses whether returning the gun requires another background check. In short, this bill simply adds confusion to the mess created by SB 941.

The bill passed out of committee on a straight party line vote with all Democrats voting yes and all Republicans voting no.

07.01.15

Tomorrow the backlash against SB 941 continues.

SB 941 enacts near universal firearms registration, ends private property transfers, and puts all gun owners at risk of arrest for activities they have engaged in honorably for generations.

 But while the Democrat majority in the legislature clearly has no interest in the will of the people, more and more counties are stepping up and saying “no”.

 Tomorrow the Yamhill County Commissioners will be joining Lane and Linn Counties and voting on a resolution stating they will not enforce SB 941, the Prozanski/Hoyle universal gun registration law.

 Please consider standing up to the Bloomberg crowd and coming to the Yamhill County Courthouse tomorrow at 10 am to show your support for Yamhill’s Resolution in support of Second Amendment liberties.

 The Courthouse is located at 5th and Evans in McMinnville. Your presence in support of the Commissioners would be appreciated.

If you can’t be there in person, please drop a note of support to the commissioners.

Yamhill County Commissioners

06.18.15

With the recall campaign against Floyd Prozanski in full swing and gun owners from across the state (and country) joining the battle with donations and offers to volunteer, Floyd and his alter ego in the House, Val Hoyle, took another hit yesterday.

Yesterday Linn County joined Lane County and the City of Canby to tell the gun grabbers they are on their own.

Linn County Commissioners passed Resolution 2015-218 which states they will not expend any county resources to implement SB 941, the supremely flawed gun owner registration bill.

With every passing day it is becoming more apparent what a colossal  and unenforceable mess 941 is. Now Floyd and his cronies are trying to figure out if they have just outlawed common construction tools with this mindless measure.

Meanwhile more and more people are recognizing that Prozanksi and Hoyle rammed through a measure even lawyers don’t understand, just to pay back New York billionaire, Mike Bloomberg.

We are grateful to the Linn County Commissioners, especially John Lindsey, for taking this step and proving once again what liars Hoyle and Prozanski are. The deception that “86%” of Oregonians supported this nonsense is revealed more each day.

And it’s not only gun owners who are seeing how dangerous and duplicitous people like Prozanski and Hoyle are.

Former Senate Candidate Monica Wehby, who has formed a PAC to promote conservative causes, has called for Hoyle’s resignation even as a recall campaign against Hoyle continues.

In Salem Prozanski has sent the CHL reciprocity bill (HB 3093) back to committee after it was exposed that the amendments he added to it rendered it meaningless, which of course, is what the point was in the first place.

Remember, before Prozanski ruined this bill, it had near unanimous support in the House. Once again it looks like Oregon will remain the only “shall issue” state that will not recognize a single other state’s CHL.

Representative Brian Clem’s “fixes” to SB 941 were also yanked off the floor and sent back to committee after it was revealed that his “improvement” to 941 put even more gun owners in danger of going to jail because they followed the law. This is what happens when you make “deals” with people like House Speaker Tina Kotek and Floyd Prozanski.

Even HB 2357, which was only supposed to be a simple clarification of where retired and off duty police could be armed was so butchered by Prozanski that it too, went back to committee.

There are no actions scheduled on any of these bills and it is looking increasing unlikely that there will be any.

While that is more bad news for gun owners, the good news is even after the passage of 941 we continue to see the facade cracking.  We look forward to more counties and cities following the lead of Lane and Linn Counties and the City of Canby.

06.11.15

Today both the Oregon Senate and House took action on gun bills by not taking action.

HB 3093 was scheduled to be heard on the Senate floor but the clock ran out and now this bill is scheduled for Monday. And Monday should be interesting.  HB 3093 is a “reciprocity” bill that lots of people have been working on for a long time. Its purpose was to allow Oregon to recognize other states’ concealed handgun licenses.

Currently we recognize… none. Virtually no other “shall issue” state has such a restrictive and mindless policy.

HB 3093 was supposed to change that and many legislators have worked tirelessly to get that done. But of course, there is always… Floyd Prozanski.

He rammed amendments into the bill that now appear to make it pointless.

Legislative Counsel, the lawyers for the legislature, have reviewed the bill as amended by Prozanski and determined that based on FloPro’s amendments the number of states Oregon will likely recognize for reciprocity is probably…zero.

There is little reason to doubt this was Prozanski’s intention from the beginning.  The Republicans who worked so hard for so long to make this bill happen may well take their names off the bill. It is clearly a charade.

SB 315, which was used as a vehicle for House Rep Brian Clem to insert even worse language into the universal registration bill, was scheduled to be heard on the House Floor today. This bill was one of the worst pieces of legislation we have ever seen, and we have seen some garbage.

Clem made a “deal” with the House Speaker, anti-gun crazy Tina Kotek, to insert some changes into the universal gun owner registration bill(SB 941)  in exchange for selling his vote in support of this awful legislation. But as so often is the case, he got hosed by Kotek and the final bill actually made SB 941 far worse.

In Clem’s bill you can now go to jail because you DID the background check. Really, we are not making this up.

Today, it appears the unthinkable happened. It appears Clem actually READ his bill. (Yes we know this is unprecedented.) After reading his own bill Clem made a motion on the floor to send the bill to the House Rules Committee to ” fix” it.  Good luck Brian. Your bill is atrocious, the bill you were trying to “fix” is atrocious and you have nothing left to bargain with.

Advantage … Tina Kotek.

06.09.15

Today the House passed SB 525, a misguided bill promoted by anti-gun groups with a mountain of lies.

The bill was sold as a way to stop domestic violence, but the promoters were all reading from the same playbook and the playbook was a fraud.

As we told you in our alert on 6.4.15, the cabal of anti-gunners who were pushing this, claimed (falsely) that this was needed because Oregon police cannot enforce Federal law prohibiting persons with domestic violence misdemeanors from possessing guns. This is, of course, a lie. The legislature’s own lawyers told them so.

As in the committee debates, the same false examples were used to push the bill.  The narrative was that in a home with a domestic abuser, restricted by a restraining order, the mere presence of gun would lead to mayhem and violence. The problem is, those people are already not allowed to be in the home! How would this bill change that?

Losing your gun rights as a result of a mere accusation of domestic abuse is frighteningly easy. You don’t have to be convicted of a crime to lose your rights. A judge can deny your rights on a whim.  Now imagine being in a place like Josephine County with virtually no law enforcement.  One of the very few police in the county  has to leave patrol to confiscate your firearms based on an allegation with no proof of a crime being committed. Their precious time is wasted and you are deprived of the only means of protecting yourself even when you have not been accused of a crime and your county has almost no law enforcement.

The bill passed today with 100% support of the House Democrats, which is, sadly, no surprise. Rep Ann Lininger made much of the NRA’s neutrality on the bill.

Unfortunately, cowed by the fear of being labeled “wife beaters,” most House Republicans voted “yes” as well. The House Republicans who had the courage to say “no” and stand up for common sense were : Greg Barreto, Sal Esquivel, John Huffman, Mike Nearman, Bill Post, Jim Weidner, Gail Whitsett and  Carl Wilson. They deserve your thanks. Special thanks to Bill Post and Carl Wilson who made a compelling case against the bill on the floor today.

Others who we believed might stand up folded.

Rep Duane Stark rose and spoke in opposition to the bill until he was told by Rep Carla Piluso that gun confiscation would not be “mandatory.”  The problem is, Piluso has not spoken one true word about this bill since she started campaigning for it. For reasons we cannot understand, Stark accepted her nonsense as fact and voted “yes.”

Sherrie Sprenger voted against this bill in committee. We praised her for her courage. But under pressure from the anti-gun lobby, Sprenger folded too. Far too many people care more about image and PR than about justice.

Remember the brave ones at election time.

06.04.15

Before we get into the news from Salem, we wanted you to know that the City Of Canby passed a resolution opposing wasting any money on the enforcement of the Prozanski/Hoyle universal gun owner registration bill.

Resolution 1217 was passed last night on 4-1-1 vote. Councilman Greg Parker abstained and Councilwoman Tracie Heidt voted against the resolution.  Parker had nothing to say, but Heidt (who drove a car with a “Shame On The NRA” bumpersticker until she started campaigning) insisted that background checks were a great tool to stop criminals.  This was after she was provided with the OSP stats proving that background checks are a joke. This is no surprise. There is simply no point in reasoning with these people. (Heidt’s profile talks about the value of “inclusive community”. Apparently gun owners are not included.)

There was the expected, shrill commentary by a handful of nanny-staters who suggested that Canby would now become the center of the illegal gun trade in Oregon, but fortunately most people who spoke were rational.

Thanks to everyone who came and made their voices heard, especially our friends at Canby Rod and Gun Club and Oregon Hunter’s Association.

Given the passage of Lane County’s resolution against the enforcement of SB 941, it’s clear this battle is far from over. Please keep working locally to return Oregon’s gun laws to a semblance of sanity, because it sure is not going to happen in Salem.

So then, on to Salem.

The House Judiciary Committee has passed SB 525 to the House Floor. This bill has passed in the Senate.

The proponents of the legislation had two talking points. One, which was repeated word for word in most of their written testimony, was “It is well documented firearms and domestic violence are a dangerous combination.”  That phrase is repeated parrot like in almost all submitted testimony. But the other talking point repeated endlessly was that the bill was needed because Oregon police cannot enforce the federal ban on firearms possession by persons with domestic violence misdemeanor convictions.

For a full page of testimony making this assertion see this link.

The people who make this claim include district attorneys, city council members, feminist groups, Senator Laurie Anderson, Representative (and former cop) Carla Piluso, and our top lawyer, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. The entire reason for this legislation was based on that claim. And that claim, as we have been saying for months, is a lie. The chairs of the committees that passed this bill know it’s a lie. But in the usual deference they show to the anti-rights groups, they simply sat there and allowed themselves to be lied to by the  people who funnel money into Democrat coffers.  The shamelessness knows no limits. But now their own lawyers are telling them it’s a lie. Rest assured it won’t matter.

Yesterday, the bill too perfect to be amended, SB 941, the universal gun owner registration bill, was…amended. Remember the Democrats refused to consider a single Republican amendment?  Although already signed into law by Kate Brown, the House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to use SB 315 as a vehicle to change some of the language in SB 941. Not a single Republican on the committee voted yes. And that’s good.
The changes that were made make a very bad bill even worse. These changes were made so House Rep Brian Clem could say he got some “pro-gun” concessions. Clem is slated to carry this garbage on the House Floor when it comes up for a vote.

Under the changes made and approved by the Democrats, you will now be subject to arrest if you transfer a firearm with an approved background check and the transferred firearm is used in a crime! The crime does not even have to be committed by the person you transferred the firearm to. It could have been stolen from that person.

But wait, you think that’s nuts? There’s more.  Under the changes made to SB 315, you can also be prosecuted if the firearm is transferred with the OSP’s approval  and the person who receives it is prohibited from owning a firearm under state and federal law.

It is the official, written policy of the OSP to approve transfers of firearms to certain felons. Felons who are PROHIBITED FROM OWNING FIREARMS! Let’s let that settle in.

You conduct a background check. The OSP gives its approval to transfer to a person they know is a prohibited person,  and you  go to jail.

This is the great bargain Brian Clem got in exchange for his selling his vote on SB 941.

But we’re not done yet. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed another amendment to HB 3093, the CHL reciprocity bill. This bill was dragged back into committee after having been passed on June 1st. The Senate Judiciary Committee rescinded the amendments it had previously approved and replaced them with amendments that once again, amended the bill too perfect to be amended, SB 941.

Seems that a lobbyist for the homebuilders association became concerned that under 941, a background check would be required for the transfer of nail guns that use small caliber cartridges to drive fasteners into concrete and other surfaces too hard for other devices.  So the CHL reciprocity bill was changed to include an exemption for tools of that kind.

This brings up a few issues.  First, what other problems and unintended consequences will ooze up as this idiotic law is implemented?  Second, if, in fact, those kinds of tools are considered “firearms” under Oregon Statute and would be regulated under SB 941, why are they not regulated as “firearms” now?