Category: OFF Alerts

04.27.2022

The far left Portland newspaper, “Willamette Week” has, not surprisingly, endorsed Christine Drazan for governor.

In many respects, this makes perfect sense. For all Drazan’s bogus campaign claims, she has consistently supported some of the most extreme policies of Oregon’s liberal ruling party.

WW comically claims “Drazan, the former House minority leader from Canby, hardly represents Portland values. She’s no RINO: Drazan is pro-life and opposed climate legislation.”

In fact, on vote after vote, Drazan voted to neuter the police and protect rioters. WW’s claim that she “opposed climate legislation” ignores the fact that she voted against oil exploration. Keep that in mind next fill up.

Proving the left has absolutely no sense of self awareness, they even state, hilariously, that  she “….unlike many in her party, knows how to exercise power. Last year, she even forced then-House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) to give the GOP equal say (for a while) in redistricting.”

The “for a while” is actually in the original quote. In reality, she forced Kotek to do nothing.  Drazan gave up her last tool to slow the far left agenda (forcing the reading of the entire bill before a vote) in exchange for a promise from someone well known for breaking her promises. And then, to no one’s surprise but Drazan, Kotek yanked the football away and Drazan and the Republicans got… nothing. (Well, maybe not “nothing.”)

WW goes on to say “ Firearms activists, for instance, blame her for letting Democrats pass a pretty innocuous gun safety bill last year. They wanted her to order her caucus to deny Democrats a quorum and are now blasting her for that. Drazan stuck around, perhaps because she knows walkouts are unpopular with the electorate.”

The “pretty innocuous gun safety bill” was SB 554 which mandates that your self defense firearms remain locked up and useless, that you be held responsible for the criminal actions of the thieves who steal guns, and that you be banned from your capitol building, the Portland Airport, and any school that decides that concealed handgun license holders no longer have a right to pick their kids up from school.

When WW said “…perhaps because she knows walkouts are unpopular with the electorate”  they misspelled “Democrats”.

You see, walkouts were very popular with Republicans who re-elected every single Republican House Rep who walked out in 2020 and elected two new ones! But Drazan is not really concerned with the best of interests of the people who elect Republicans. She is far more concerned with doing the bidding of the Democrats who she (and many other Republicans) vote with over and over again.

As you know, the “Firearms activists” mentioned in the WW puff piece are you, OFF members. No one else has spoken up for the rights of gun owners in Oregon.  We are grateful for your continued activism.  And we are grateful for the far left, anti-gun, Willamette Week newspaper for making it clear who (besides wealthy lobbyists) really supports Christine Drazan.

04.11.2022

Today Joe Biden announced new rules to attack personally made firearms.

As with all of his press conferences, it was truly painful to watch.

Biden said that all unfinished lowers would now require a serial number. He also repeatedly referred to the BATF as the “AFT”.  He could not pronounce the name of his new prospective  ATF director, Steve Dettelbach.

He spoke of a place in Delaware where he did “a lot of hunting.” He claimed that when the Second Amendment was written you “could not buy a cannon.”

He completely misrepresented the recent settlement by the former Remington’s insurance company. It was comical and tragic at the same time.

America truly is in deep trouble and while the Democrats are no doubt desperately trying to figure out how to get rid of Joe, we suspect the Republicans would love to keep him around to help boost their credibility.

At one point in his rambling incoherent comments Biden noted that part of his new rules would be a requirement that gun dealers add serial numbers to privately made firearms they bought from others.  Biden is apparently unaware of the fact that privately made firearms may not be sold.
(With very limited exceptions.)

This new initiative is designed to harass honest people and will succeed. However, the reality is the toothpaste is out of the tube and Joe and his cronies don’t get it. You can outlaw information, but you can’t make it disappear.  We predict a surge in the sales of 3D printers.

03.03.2022

Do You Remember Kevin Mannix?  We do.

Lawyer Kevin Mannix has filed to run for the House seat in the newly crafted 21st district.

If you’re relatively new to Oregon politics, the name might not be familiar. For others who have been around longer it may ring a bell.

While Mannix has run for numerous offices, and lost, he did serve in the Oregon House in 1999.

In fact, Mannix was the chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

Believe it or not, both houses of the Oregon Legislature were controlled by Republicans back then.

Mannix, who had been a Democrat, was then a Republican.

1999 was the first year Oregon Firearms Federation was active in the legislature.  Formed in 1998 after watching the institutional gun lobby bargain away our rights, OFF was created to stand up and stop the deal making and compromises.  And what a year it would be.

While it is often assumed that the Democrats are anti-gun and the Republicans support gun rights, 1999 proved that a letter behind your name does not mean much.

That year the Democrats were pushing hard to ban the private sale of guns at gun shows. Although not in the majority, they were making headway.

During that session Senator Ginny Burdick introduced legislation (SB 700) to end the private sale of firearms at gun shows. Despite our best efforts, the bill passed through the Republican controlled Senate and was sent to the House.

There, Kevin Mannix, set out to “amend” it. And amend it he did. Working with a group called “Oregon Gun Owners” Republican Mannix, and then House Rep Democrat Floyd Prozanski, actually managed to make the bill worse.

(Under Mannix’s bill you would have been restricted from selling or trading guns from your home.)

That was the birth of HB 2535.

From that point on, OFF worked overtime to kill this awful legislation, while “Oregon Gun Owners” pulled out all the stops to promote the new gun control bill they had help craft. The National Rifle Association withdrew from the battle altogether and never said one word to their members about the bill as it progressed through the legislative process.

It was a hell of a fight. OFF was brand new, still small and underfunded, and taking on the entire anti-gun machine alone.

On June 22, 1999, HB 2535 passed the House 34-26. Mannix proudly carried this bill on the House floor.

Things looked grim for gun owners. With both Republican and Democrat legislators pushing new restrictions, the National Rifle Association refusing to acknowledge that the bill even existed, and a supposedly “pro-gun” organization promoting it, the chances of beating it in the Senate seemed remote at best.

The original gun show bill had already passed the Senate. Mannix and Prozanksi’s even worse version had passed the House and now was headed for the Senate.

(A deal had been made to drop SB 700 and replace it with Mannix’s worse bill.)

We were uniformly warned that we had no chance of killing it. But OFF never gave up. With a constant stream of mail and electronic communication, OFF reached out to gun owners across the state who in turn hammered legislators. The Senate vote was scheduled for July 6. It was postponed until July 7 and again till the 8th. OFF kept up the pressure. The bill was postponed again until the 9th and again until the 12th.

When the vote finally came, after a chaotic and confusing floor session, the bill failed by one vote. David had slain Goliath.  Then-Senator Kate Brown attempted some last second procedural moves to keep the bill alive. They failed. The bill was dead. Mannix was furious. Ginny Burdick, who had made a floor speech when it looked like the passage was a sure thing and said “We rolled the gun lobby” was in tears. 

After a long hiatus and several failed attempts at other offices, Kevin Mannix is back hoping to return to the legislature.

Oddly, in an opening email pitch for donations, Mannix said “In Oregon, we have a citizen legislature, which means I can continue running my law firm while representing Oregonians from House District 21.” Why a guy running for a horribly dysfunctional legislature would want to kick off a campaign by telling people he did not plan to devote full attention to the job is anyone’s guess.  But Mannix has never been one to place the best interest of Oregonians above his own.

We know Kevin Mannix. Now you do too.

2.28.2022

We’ve been telling you about the train wreck that has been the 2022 legislative session. As it draws to a close it appears the biggest losers will be farmers, local school boards, voter integrity and the rule of law. So you could say we got off easy.

But, as you will recall, we have other battles taking place on a more local level.

Both Yamhill and Columbia County have Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinances, passed with OFF’s support.

Both are being challenged by the state and well funded anti-rights organizations.

In Columbia County two ordinances were passed by the voters through ballot measures. There, two of the county commissioners conspired to overturn the will of the people.

The two county commissioners, Henry Heimuller and Margaret Magruder,  devised a plan to rewrite the ordinances and then ask the courts to strike down the version they created.

They appear to have made plans to seek “judicial review” of their new ordinance before they even passed it.

The state of Oregon, and deep pocket anti-gun groups, then got involved and ask the court to throw out the new ordinance.  The court recognized the game being played and refused.  So the anti-rights cabal that includes our attorney general appealed.

That is the costly battle we are fighting right now in Columbia County.  During both phases of this court fight the other side as repeatedly lied about what the ordinance did. After being smacked down in the lower court, they have reasserted the same false allegations about the ordinance in the appeals process.

We beat them once and have no choice but to fight them again.  Our legal team has done an amazing job of pointing out what a sham these attacks are, but the state and Bloomberg’s freedom haters have endless resources and the bills are adding up.

In Yamhill County, the ordinance was passed by the commissioners themselves.  Commissioners Mary Starrett and Lindsey Berschauer passed the ordinance over the hysterical objections of Commissioner Casey Kulla.

Kulla is a far left extremist who recently announced a run for Governor and now has decided he wants to be labor commissioner. But as in Columbia County, the heavy hand of the state has come down and the Attorney General of Oregon is suing to block the Yamhill ordinance as well.

Kulla is using the state’s lawsuit to attack Commissioner Berschauer and has joined a cabal of left wing radicals in an effort to recall her.  This group of agitators tried to recall her once before ( as they did with several Newberg school board members).  They failed.

Now, flush with cash, they are attempting to recall her again. Kulla has published a letter filled with lies promoting the ouster of his colleague.

His lies are so outrageous it’s hard to imagine anyone taking him seriously. Kulla states:

“Commissioner Berschauer knowingly breaking state law, forcing elected officials to break the law and violate their oats (sic) and forcing county taxpayers to to foot the bill of the consequences is not disagreement”

We expect absurd and nonsensical accusations like this from liberals, but Kulla’s error filled rant really takes fraudulent accusations to a new and pathetic low.

We support Commissioner Berschauer, who won her seat on a promise to enact this exact ordinance, and will stand against the insidious and false attacks that have become the hallmark of the far left in Yamhill County.

But we need your help.  The protection of these ordinances is more than a local issue. How these cases are decided could determine the future of ordinances across the country that seek to stand up to the unconstitutional and tyrannical mandates made by leftist controlled state legislatures on counties and cities.

As you can imagine, these battles are extremely expensive.  We would be grateful for any support you can afford to help us win these essential fights.

Your tax deducible donation to the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation could be all that stands in the way of the state crushing people who stand up to them.

Please consider making the most generous contribution you can.

You can use our secure online page by choosing “Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation” from the “Donation Category” drop down menu.

For those who prefer PayPal there is a yellow PayPal “Donate” button on this page.

If you prefer to donate by check, please send your contribution to ;

Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation

PO Box 556

Canby OR 97013

Thank you for your support. It’s never been more important.

Situation Normal

02.12.2022

Unfortunately, the February legislative session has unfolded exactly as we predicted.

The majority Democrats have been ramming through an endless stream of Marxist bills to promote racism and redistribute wealth while attacking and undermining our school boards and indoctrinating our kids.

The Republicans, as expected, have done… nothing.

In the beginning of the session many of you received an email from the office of the House Republican Leader Vicky Iverson in response to your request that House Republicans stand up to the coming attacks from the left. 

The email was comical and pathetic. In it, her staffer wrote:

“The House Republicans have the ability to walk out any time they feel Democrats are pushing policies bad for Oregonians. Tuesday’s vote was simply for House Rules, it does not and will not stop House Republicans from walking out in the future of this 35 day short session.”

This is borderline demented. The “vote” she mentions was a vote to FORBID the House Republicans from walking out. And, of course, it passed because the House Republicans remained on the floor to provide the quorum needed to pass it. To suggest that somehow that vote does not prevent the Republicans from walking out it is quite simply, a lie.

In fact, the Democrats have been doing nothing BUT pushing bad policies. Far too many to count or report, but here is a perfect example.

“Representative E Werner Reschke (R-Klamath Falls) responded to the situation, “This is shocking. It is grooming at best, evil at worst. Sexualizing children is wrong, period, full stop. It is child abuse, no matter whether done by a pedophile or by the state.”

But while, once again, the Republicans stomp their feet and bleat their outrage and indignation, they stick around to make sure these bills pass.

Iverson’s email went on to say:

“Oregon House Republicans have bills to curtail Governor’s Over Reach, create transparency in school curriculums, support police, end mandates and more. We cannot do the work by walking out at this point. We will be fighting against Ag Overtime, and pro criminal bills coming from Democrats at the same time. If we walk out, the Governor will just push these policies through executive order.”

So which is it?  They’ll walk out “when” bad policies are being pushed but they can’t now because they “have bills?” Do they really think you are that stupid?

Since Iverson’s email was sent, we have seen nothing but a long stream of email newsletters from Republicans remarking how their bills are going nowhere. Of course they’re going nowhere. They are Republican bills. Did they really believe their bills would move?

To then suggest that they must remain (even after saying they “could” walk) in order to fight anything is a pathetic fraud.  They have NO power while they remain. None, zip, nada.  And to whine that if they walk out the governor will just impose these policies by “executive order” is cowardly slight-of-hand. What difference does it make if the governor does it by executive order or the legislature does it with the tacit agreement of the Republicans?

The same polices are in place and the Republicans helped.

Of course, no email from a Republican politician would be complete without a pitch to elect more Republicans.

“We must change the majority in November. This is the only way to change Oregon.”

This conveniently ignores what they want you to forget.  After they walked out last time they GAINED seats. People responded to their courage. People don’t respond to politicians who are part of the swindle.

In another email we received from another Republican House Rep, (who mercifully won’t be around after the short session) we were reminded that this is all YOUR fault.

In it she said:

“The reality is that we’re getting our asses kicked because some republicans and conservatives won’t show up to vote, they don’t give money, and they can’t count to 31 or 16.”

There you have it. You are not voting and sending them enough money. And apparently you can’t count. It’s no one’s fault but yours. (Which makes you wonder how they got elected in the first place.)

At the moment, it does not appear that any direct attacks on gun rights will be moving forward. Even the ridiculous bill promoted by Republican Greg Smith looks dead.

One bill that threatened self defense is on hold though we’ll be watching it. 

One thing we agree with the Republican legislators on is this, we have to make some big changes at election time.

Republicans…stand up, or go home.

01.25.2022

Our inboxes are overflowing with emails from Republican Legislators asking for money and votes in the coming elections.

With no records to stand on, some are making absurd claims about their “courage” or taking “credit” for Democrat bills.

It’s officially a circus, and the clowns have center stage. But Oregon simply cannot survive another disastrous session like the last one.

In 2021, under the horribly failed control of  Senator Fred Girod and House Rep Christine Drazan, the Republicans surrendered every single battle to the Democrats with barely a whimper.

Now, Drazan, running for Governor, is actually, and hilariously, campaigning on how “tough” she is, and claiming she’s a “fighter” who stood up to House Speaker Tina Kotek.  Apparently Drazan’s definition of “standing up” is when you roll over and vote for your opponent’s bills,  and then claim some kind of demented victory because those dangerous bills passed.

Now, as you know, Drazan has stepped down from her House seat so she can devote full time to raising money for her governor’s race. We are thankful she is no longer turning the House Republicans into doormats, but the danger is far from passed.

Last session, under Drazan, the House Republicans capitulated and allowed the passage of rules in the House that prohibited them from walking out. We continue to be horrified that they would willingly give up the only tool they had. But now, in a surreal twist, Drazan is bragging about having walked out in the previous session, a tactic that worked and one she and the other House Republican abandoned in 2021 in exchange for $2,000,000.00 each from the feds.

If they agree to cripple themselves again in the coming February session there is not a single reason any of them should show up for work. They will, once again, get flattened by the Democrats. And the Democrats have made no secret of their plans for this session. It ain’t pretty.

So, once again, it’s up to us.

The new Republican House Leader is Vicki Breese Iverson.  [ https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/breese-iverson ]

Iverson must not agree to any rules that prevent the minority from exercising their constitutional right to deny a quorum.

That means that if the rules they vote on at the beginning of the session contain that provision (which we fully expect they will) the Republicans must walk out on that vote. Period. Anything else is a complete surrender to the extreme agendas of the left.

Thank you for your activism.

Gun Bans In Wasco County Schools?

01.20.2022 SCHOOL BOARD ALERT

If we’ve learned anything from the debacle taking place in Newberg Oregon, we have learned the importance of school boards and the damage they can do if controlled by left wing zealots.

Tonight the North Wasco School Board will be holding a “first reading” on a new policy to ban concealed handgun license holders from all their property if lawfully armed.

This means every piece of property controlled by any of the following schools:

The Dalles High School

The Dalles Middle School

Dry Hollow Elementary

Colonel Wright Elementary

Chenowith Elementary School

Moiser Community School

Riverbend Community School.

Not only will responsibly armed parents be violating the law if they drop off or pick up their children at school, or enter a school building for any reason, but no one with a state sanctioned CHL will be allowed to set foot anywhere on any of their property while legally in possession of defensive firearms.  That includes playing fields and any path that crosses the properties they control.

This dangerous and bigoted policy is an open invitation to the kind of violence the anti-gun radicals are always falsely claiming to oppose.

We cannot find any incidents at any of these schools that could possibly justify punishing responsible parents or endangering students.

Please contact the school board and express your strong objection to this insane policy.

Info on public comments to the school board:

https://www.nwasco.k12.or.us/site/Default.aspx?PageID=58

School board members :

https://sites.google.com/nwasco.k12.or.us/boardmemberinformation/board-members

School Board Agenda: (the anti-parent agenda appears near the bottom)

https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public/Agenda/1556?meeting=512492

01.20.2022

Here they come.

We expect a flurry of anti-rights bills in February, and while we don’t have details on all of them, we’ll share what we know so you can prepare.

We have been informed that there will be a number of  Republican “pro-gun” bills as well. These will be fluff and window dressing designed to deflect attention from the Republican cowards who stood by and allowed more of your rights to be stripped away last session. They will not pass unless they are “gut and stuffed” and turned into anti-gun bills by the Democrats.

James Manning

Senator James Manning, who continues to claim to have been both a police officer and a “firearms instructor” has, once again, introduced a bill to “address both undetectable 3D printed firearms and untraceable “ghost guns,” continuing Oregon’s longstanding commitment to responsible gun ownership. This bill will ban undetectable firearms and untraceable/unserialized firearms.”

The purpose of this bill is to turn anyone who has lawfully built a firearm themselves, for their own use, into a felon.

We need not tell you how ludicrous this moronic proposal is. Whether Manning and his Marxist fellow travelers like it or not, there is no going back. The technology and the files for making firearms at home are not going away.  He is not putting the genie back in the bottle. What he and the rest of the leftists in charge are doing is taking one more step to divide Oregonians.  That’s always been the plan. And it never ends well.

Expect the bill to be substantially the same as his last go round.

https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2021R1/Downloads/MeasureDocument/SB396/Introduced

If you own a home made firearm, or if you planned to build one, or if you are a dealer who sells unfinished receivers, be forewarned.  Felony charges await.

Please keep in mind the Democrats have the votes to pass ANYTHING they want.

In 2021, they rolled over the Republicans who had the power to stop all this insanity but refused to step up in exchange for payoffs in Federal money.

This session, the Republicans, once again have the power to protect our rights. If they just have the courage to stand up and use it.

If you live in a district with Republican legislators, please contact them and remind them that after the coming sessions come elections. If they don’t fight back this time there will be no reason to vote for them again. We lose nothing by losing representatives who stand by while our freedoms are stripped away.

If you don’t know who your Oregon House Rep and Senator are, you can find out here.

https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/findyourlegislator/leg-districts.html

Take action now while there is still something to lose. Thanks for your activism.

01.17.2022

And the winner is… the white guy.

House Democrats have chosen the almost certain next Speaker of the House, Dan Rayfield.
Dan Rayfield

Rayfield is a far left lawyer from Corvallis and staunch supporter of restrictions on gun rights. Rayfield is also.. white.

Rayfield won over Janell Bynum who has sought the position before, challenging outgoing Tina Kotek.
Janelle Bynum

Bynum’s campaigns for the speaker’s role have been largely based on her position that she should have the job because she is black.

“I issue this challenge to the Democratic Party: Commit to mentoring, stepping aside, and creating pathways for leadership development,” Bynum said. “These are the ways qualified Oregonians of color will enter into these halls of power. We are capable of so much more than the opportunities that are open to us.”

Bynum’s expectation that white Democrats “step aside” has twice now led to disappointment as her liberal colleagues, once again, chose a white person to control the House. Her quote is telling however. Bynum makes no secret that her “public service” is about power, not the best interests of Oregonians.

The Democrat’s vote for their next speaker candidate was held this past weekend by secret ballot. So Bynum does not currently know who cast their votes for Rayfield but the final vote does not occur until the session begins in February. Then there will be a vote of the entire House, so Republicans will get to vote as well.

Typically the Republicans will nominate one of their own for the job. That person would lose and then the Republicans would change their votes so the Democrat nominee would have a unanimous victory.

(The Democrats will almost certainly vote in lockstep for their nominee on the floor.)

But this could still get interesting. Bynum challenged outgoing Speaker Tina Kotek in the past based on her belief that she deserved to be speaker because of her skin color. Kotek is white but has established liberal credentials because she’s a lesbian. As you can imagine, this challenge presented quite a conflict for liberals.

Bynum, who has an MBA and owns several McDonalds restaurants, is the leader of the “BIPOC caucus.” The BIPOC caucus is made of up legislators who are not white or who identify as non white. The BIPOC caucus controlled the agenda in Salem last session where they passed legislation to ban ropes with loops, outlaw Columbus Day, change the state song because it included the words “free men”, forced private corporations to include a certain number of transexuals on their boards, and neuter the police, among other things.  So it’s interesting to hear her complain that “doors” have not been opened for her.

“I know just like in corporate America, it takes people to open doors, it takes people to train and mentor. I didn’t have those and I got really far. I was taken seriously.” she said.

So somehow, while not having anyone to “train or mentor” her, or open doors, she was “taken seriously” and “got really far.” Far enough to become a powerful member of Oregon’s House and challenge the House Speaker.

Last time Bynum sought the speaker’s office she threatened to challenge Kotek on the House Floor where there would be an open, recorded, vote and the world would see who the racists were.  But then, according to Bynum, and backed up by Akasha Spence, a deal was made to avoid a floor fight. (Spence was just appointed to the seat vacated by Ginny Burdick, who left her role as the legislature’s most extreme and shrill gun banner to take a much better paying and cushy government job.)

The deal, according to Bynum, was that she would drop her bid to unseat Kotek in exchange for, among other things, a promise of endorsement for that job in the future.

As the very naive House Republicans learned, making a deal with Kotek is the sign of being truly out of touch with reality. And now it appears that Kotek reneged on her deal with Bynum just as she reneged on her “deal” with former Republican House Leader, Christine Drazan.

Drazan had the football swiped away from her when she agreed to fold and give the Democrats every demented thing they demanded in exchange for the meaningless gesture of equal representation on the redistricting committee. After rolling over and handing the Democrats a free pass to turn Oregon into a socialist cesspool, Kotek told Drazan that she was only kidding and backed out of the deal.

But now, once again, Bynum has had her dreams of consolidating her power dashed by the racists in her own caucus. She was shunned for another rich white guy.

It’s interesting, and not a little appalling, that members of the Democrat caucus actually consider Bynum TOO MODERATE!

We can only assume that’s because Bynum owns McDonalds restaurants which signals she may harbor some secret capitalist sympathies. They picked Rayfield because he is actually further to the left than Bynum. 

There is nothing to stop Bynum from making another play for the job by challenging Rayfield on the House Floor. If she does, the House Democrats won’t have the benefit of a secret vote to hide their racist tendencies. And the Republicans get to vote.

One Republican vote Bynum won’t be getting is Greg Smith’s.
Greg Smith

Smith is the longest serving House Rep. He comes from a conservative Republican district. But he has long been a reliable servant to the Democrat leadership.

Smith is the co-Vice Chair of the powerful Joint Ways and Means Committee. And if Smith knows anything, it’s where his bread is buttered.

Smith has lately racked up more absences from his job as a House Rep than anyone, but let’s face it. He’s a busy guy.

When former Republican House Leader, Christine Drazan, called for a vote to censure Tina Kotek for welching on her redistricting deal, Smith beat feet for the exits to avoid going on record against the all powerful Kotek, who of course, picked committee assignments.

And now that Rayfield looks like the heir apparent, Smith is already cooing his praise for the radical leftist.

“Rayfield is considered more liberal than Bynum, but has also won respect among Republicans. Rep. Greg Smith, a Heppner Republican and the longest-tenured House member, told OPB this week he is “doing everything I can to support Dan Rayfield as speaker.”

“There’s only a handful of people who know more about the budget better than I do,” said Smith, who chairs a budget subcommittee. “In his six years, he knows it better. He’s the real deal.”

There may well be some interesting times ahead in the opening days of the February session. Will the new House Republican leader, Vicki Iverson, roll over and allow the House to institute rules that forbid a walkout like her predecessor did? Will Bynum call out her racist colleagues and demand to be enthroned as speaker, because she is, after all, not white?

We will soon know. But what we do know, without question, is the new House Speaker will be every bit as extreme and anti-gun as the last. Stay tuned.

01.11.2022

As you know, in the last legislative session the Oregon Legislature passed SB 554.

This bill required that you keep your self defense firearms locked up and useless, held you responsible for the misuse of stolen firearms, prohibited your trained minor children from defending themselves in your home and banned the licensed carry of firearms in the Capitol, the Portland Airport, and any school that wanted to bar you from their property.

Now, we have learned that Oregon House Rep. Greg Smith is introducing a bill to repeal SB 554.

Greg Smith

That’s the bad news.

The fact is, Smith’s proposed bill has a zero percent chance of passing. That’s zero with a “z.”

But it has an enormous chance of being turned into another anti-gun monster.  That’s because the “relating clause” of the bill says “Relating to Firearms.”

While the final version of a bill must still comport to its relating clause, every single word can be stripped out and replaced with completely different language.

That means that this bill, whatever it says now, can be completely rewritten into whatever the Democrats want, as long as it still relates to “firearms.”  Just imagine the damage they can do.

But why introduce a bill with no chance of passage when it can be abused by the people in power?  Well, because this is a “short” session, legislators will be limited to how many bills each one can introduce. Whatever Smith’s intentions, this bill becomes a free extra bill for the anti-gun Democrats to “gut and stuff” and turn into another anti-gun nightmare.

Smith is the longest serving member of the House. He is not a newbie. He is not a freshman. He knows how this game is played. Smith MUST immediately demand that the bill draft be corrected so the relating clause cannot be used to turn this into another fiasco, or he MUST withdraw his bill.

He has the power to direct the lawyers who write the drafts and the relating clauses to fix this. NOW.

Please contact Smith and tell him to correct the relating clause to eliminate the chance for it to be gut and stuffed, or withdraw this pointless legislation.

Greg Smith:

Rep.GregSmith@oregonlegislature.gov

503-986-1457

Please tell Smith to demand a change in the “relating clause” to LC 111 or withdraw it immediately .

01.05.2022

2022 New Year Situation Report

Happy New Year.

First, of course, we want to extend a very sincere and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has helped support our efforts through your generous contributions to OFF, the Oregon Firearms Educational Foundation, and our political action committee OFFPAC.

We are in the midst of numerous fights with plenty more coming.  There is simply no way we would be in them without you, so from us to all of you, thank you.

We hope you had a peaceful and joyous Christmas and New Years and want to take a moment to provide a report on where we are right now.

Salem, The Continuing Crisis.

As you know, last year’s legislative session was an unmitigated disaster, not only for gun rights, but for the future of our state and for common sense.

Criminals were rewarded, police were neutered and demoralized, our heritage was attacked and eroded, and our rights and property were assaulted.

Unfortunately, all of this damage was not only tolerated, but actively encouraged by virtually all elected Republicans, with the exception of a few Republican members of our Senate who stood up while their “leaders” sold us out.

On the Senate side, Republican “leader” Senator Fred Girod caved to every far left whim and handed victory after victory to the anti-gun extremists with hardly a whimper. When the left said “jump” Girod said “how high” and then bounced up and down until Senate President patted him on the head and told him to return to his corner.

In the House, Republican “leader” Christine Drazan presided over the most disgraceful display of cowardice and greed in Oregon history. Her almost supernatural incompetence was on full display as she lurched from one policy catastrophe to the next. She gladly gave away any opportunity to stand up in exchange for “deals” with the Democrats that a 5 year old would have laughed at, only to see those deals broken at the last minute by far left, anti-rights, pro-riot, Tina Kotek, the Speaker of the House and current candidate for Governor.

Drazan, who became leader in her very first term as a House rep, had given every indication of standing up to Kotek in her first session when House Republicans followed the lead of Senate Republicans and walked out of the capitol to protest leftist overreach. 

But those were very different days, because at the time, the Senate Republicans actually had a “leader” (Senator Herman Baertschiger) for Drazan to follow. But with Baertschiger gone, Girod in his place, and not a real leader in sight, Drazan stamped her feet, flipped her bangs away from her eyes and handed Kotek and her Marxist fellow travelers everything they wanted. And not just by refusing to walk out.  No, Drazan (and most other Republicans) actually voted with the Marxists over and over and over.

And then, since complete capitulation wasn’t enough, Drazan led her entire caucus to expel the only House Rep with any integrity, Mike Nearman.

Nearman’s “crime” was actually doing what Drazan and her fellow cowards only bleated about. Letting Oregonians, (you know, the people who own the capitol) INTO the capitol.

It’s almost impossible to imagine that not a single Republican House Rep had the spine to stand up for their colleague.  But with Drazan at the helm, the odds were defied and EVERY SINGLE Republican turned their backs on Nearman while also voting to PROTECT one of Kotek’s Marxist staffers who was arrested at one of Portland’s nightly riots. 

But, as we learned, there actually was a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Well in Drazan’s case, there were 2 million explanations. That’s how many dollars each Republican House rep got in exchange for their willingness to sell out the entire state.  That was 2 million OVER the usual appropriations each district got, to do with pretty much as they pleased.  That was money generously provided by the Feds, after they took it from you.

Not to be outdone, Republican Senators also got a nice incentive to roll over. In fact, their incentive was nicer. They each got FOUR MILLION dollars.

We know what they are, we’re just dickering over the price.

Now, as a result of the Republicans being greased with your money, you may no longer possess a firearm in the Capitol, at the Portland Airport, in any school that decides to ban you and of course, any gun you own must be locked up and useless.  Thank you Drazan and Girod.

But it’s a new year and things are changing.

Fred Girod has resigned his position as Senate Republican “leader” (though not his Senate seat) and Drazan has resigned her position as House leader. She too will keep her seat as a House Rep.

While you might think this is good news, Girod has been replaced by the one Senator who can be demonstrated to be even more of a despicable sell out than Girod was. If you can believe that.

The new Senate Republican “leader” is Tim Knopp. The ONLY Republican Senator who stayed behind to help the Democrats during the successful 2020 walk out.

While Knopp refused to stand up and join the walk out, he comically told voters that he had been “asked by leadership” to stay behind to “monitor” the Democrats.  This absurd, pathetic lie was, sadly, believed by some people. None of whom, we can assure you, ever actually checked with the leadership Knopp was lying about.

Knopp has also proudly posted photos of himself with a gaggle of gun grabbing “Moms Demand Action” hacks and praised their courage.

As you may know, the Senate Republican Caucus was so miserably run by Girod that it split virtually in half and two Republicans actually left the party in disgust. (Senators Brian Boquist and Art Robinson.) Now things could actually get worse.

The House Republicans replaced Drazan with Vicki Breeze Iverson.  We have no indication that she has any plans to run things differently. Given the craven collection of cowards she has to “lead” we can only wish her luck.  But since she caved alongside them all, there’s not a lot of reason to think there will be a dramatic change.  But, we can hope.

A month before the next legislative session, the leftists who run the legislature (unimpeded by Republicans) have already announced plans to move Oregon closer to a complete Marxist hell hole.

As you have no doubt noticed, we are entering election season. We know our email box is filling up.

The Democrats have a line up that includes ultra lefty Tina Kotek, State Treasurer Tobias Read, (who has made no secret of his support for mandates) and Nicholas Kristof, a writer for the New York Times, and… a resident of New York. Much like our own Senator Ron Wyden.

The list of Republicans running for Governor grows daily and includes some new names and some horrible retreads. Once again, anti-gun groveler Bud Pierce is running on no discernible platform, as is Jessica Gomez who only recently decided to become a Republican after years of being a Democrat. Interestingly her campaign spokesperson is the wife of former Senator Bob Packwood, Elaine Franklin.  Franklin famously left the Republican Party out of disgust with…conservatives.

Most of the other candidates have so far made positive statements about Second Amendment rights, but a recent addition to the line up should prove interesting.

After a disastrous term as House Republican Leader, none other than the poster child of failure and disgrace, Christine Drazan, has added her name to the growing list of Republican Governor candidates.

The one upside to this absurd development is that she will be gone from the legislature and no longer be in the House.

Her campaign website is one outrageous fabrication after another, where she describes herself as a “fighter” with lots of vague references to her “standing up” to the Brown’s and Kotek’s of Oregon and no mention of the truth, that she gave them everything they demanded and more, in exchange for a few taxpayer’s dollars.

We can only hope the voters of Oregon look past the lies and look at her record.

In addition to the long list of Republican contenders, former Democrat Senator Betsy Johnson has resigned her seat, left the Democrat party, and is running for governor as an independent.  She quickly garnered very large contributions from well known Oregon businesses.

Although a long time Democrat, Johnson was a reliable pro-gun vote. Where she will be on other issues remains to be seen.

Ballot Measures

Two extreme anti-gun ballot measures, IP 17 and IP 18 qualified for the ballot after a lengthy delay caused by… us.

Oregon Firearms Federation was the only organization to challenge the ballot measure titles and that (costly) legal battle set back the anti-gunners by a considerable length of time.  However, their ballot titles were finally approved and they are now qualified to collect signatures.

A quick review of the measures will make clear their intention.  At a time when Oregon politicians are rewarding criminals and neutering the police, the extremists behind these measures want to make sure all decent Oregonians are disarmed and defenseless.  They have made it clear that if successful this is only a starting point and they fully expect their lackeys in the legislature to add even more restrictions.

If they collect enough signatures we fully expect a well funded campaign by Bloomberg to pass these demented attacks.

County Battles

There are major and important battles on the county level as well.  As you probably know, Columbia County passed not one, but two Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinances by a vote of the people.  100% of the credit for these victories goes to Chris Brumbles, OFF’s Columbia County Coordinator and the hardest working man in the gun rights business.

To no one’s surprise, two of the County Commissioners were so horrified by the idea of the people insisting on their rights, that they rewrote the ordinances and then immediately asked the court to invalidate their own version. They were joined by Mike Bloomberg’s “Everytown” and our own Attorney General.

After another expensive court battle (thanks to your support and the help of Gun Owners of America) the gun grabbers lost when the judge recognized that the county and their fellow travelers were simply trying to use the court to overturn the will of the people.

Now they are back and appealing that judge’s decisions. So OFF is once again in court fighting to uphold gun rights in Columbia County and some shred of sanity in a state determined to undermine common sense everywhere. It’s interesting to note that in this appeal, the Attorney General chose not to participate. Make of that what you will.

At the same time in Yamhill County, the AG is working to overturn the Yamhill County Second Amendment ordinance.  This ordinance, however, was actually passed by the Commissioners of the county. (Two of the three that is. The third, far left Casey Kulla, voted no and is now in a quixotic race for governor himself.)

These local battles for 2nd Amendment rights will have far reaching consequences .

The AG has also sued to overturn a similar ordinance in Harney County. We have no word on whether Harney County plans to fight for their ordinance.

We think given the current situation in Salem, these local battles are going to take center stage in the fight for gun rights.

We are seeing battles heat up all the way down to the school board level. For a long time the left has infiltrated school boards and city councils.  Now patriots are pushing back and what used to be sleepy uncontested races are getting ugly as the leftists discover they can longer control and manipulate the agenda unopposed.

This development creates new opportunities for freedom fighters to become part of the fight in races that are far more local, accessible and affordable. But make no mistake, these races are critical and may well be more important than legislative races in the long run.

Looking ahead, we are quite sure there will be some ferocious fights in this state. In Salem, in your county, and in your town.

We are deeply grateful for your support, your activism and your commitment to liberty. If Oregon has any hope left, it really is you.

11.30.2021

We have good news and bad news.

First the bad news.

As you may have heard, Kate Brown is convening a “special session” starting Dec 13th. Just in time to do even more damage to your holiday.

It does not sound like Senate President Courtney is thrilled by the idea.

The announced reason for the session is to deal with more support for renters who cannot pay their rent.

As usual, Oregon’s program to “help” people was a miserable failure so now Brown wants the legislature to return to enact more costly, government “solutions”.

It comes as no surprise that there appears to be no interest in helping property owners who have not been receiving rent payments.

“For more than 18 months, thousands of housing providers across Oregon have gone without income,” Imse said. “The state needs to uphold their end of the deal and cut the checks to Oregonians in need.”

Of course, as we have learned, nothing prevents “special sessions” from drifting far from their stated purpose and anything can happen when the politicians are back creating chaos.

Having seen the vicious and bigoted comments made by many Democrat legislators after the Rittenhouse acquittal, we have to be prepared for more efforts by the left to attack self defense rights. What better time than when Oregonians are attempting to overcome supply chain failures and the threat of flash mob looting to get in some Christmas shopping?

So be prepared.  The people who work to steal your rights, and their cowardly Republican enablers, don’t rest.  Please don’t assume the politicians will stick to the advertised excuse for more legislative mayhem.

And now the good news.

House Republican “leader” Christine Drazan is stepping down from her role as the most inept and bumbling House Leader in Oregon history so she can concentrate on her bizarre run for governor!

Drazan sold out gun owners and all Oregonians by greasing the skids for the far left’s assault on gun rights, self defense, traditional values and common sense. Not only did she enable the Democrats mad dash to collapse by refusing to stand in the way, she actually voted for many of their worst ideas.

Only the absurdly incompetent Fred Girod, the now replaced Senate Republican “leader,” demonstrated an equal ability to screw up everything he touched.

Drazan has been replaced by Vikki Breese-Iverson.

Iverson joined all other House Republicans in forcing out the only Republican House member with any integrity, Mike Nearman.  We hope she “grows in office.”

But for now we are grateful for Drazan’s stepping down and her eventual complete departure from the legislature.  Based on her past performance and how easily she was smacked around by House Speaker Tina Kotek, we are not currently too fearful that she will be governor any time soon.