Category: OFF Alerts

02.09.18

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.

02.07.18 The House Judiciary Committee  heard HB 4145  today . 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. You can still send testimony against HB 4145 to: hjud.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov . You can take instant action against the bill by clicking on this link . Please do it now.

02.05.18

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 people to 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 and  dangerous 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:

hjud.exhibits@oregonlegislature.gov .

And you can take instant action against the bill by clicking on this link.  

01.31.18

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.

1.22.18

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.

12.28.17

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.

Governor Kate Brown and House Majority leader Jennifer Williamson have both publicly stated that they plan to use the short session to ram through more gun restrictions.

“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.

 

12.06.17 

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 of faulty 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 to change 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.

10.05.17

In a move that will surprise no one who has been paying attention for the last 30 years, the National Rifle Association has joined left wing legislators and establishment Republicans and called for still more restrictions on your gun rights.

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 weapon  to 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 to  efforts 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.

08.26.17

Ok folks, game on.

As you know, the Governor has signed the Boquist/Burdick gun confiscation bill. What you might not know is how few of our friends in law enforcement are even aware of it.

When the courts begin ordering the seizure of guns from people who have committed no crime, things are going to get real ugly in Oregon. So it’s time to go to work.

Rest assured, as the effort begins to repeal this vicious attack on our rights, New York billionaires will be pumping a fortune into our state to continue the lies that the supporters of this bill told to pass it. This will NOT be an easy fight but you can do something about it. And you can start now.

Please visit http://www.repeal719.com/  right now to download petitions to refer this bill to the voters. Please share this link with everyone you know who believes in liberty and due process, especially our friends in the rural parts of the state. Then… start gathering signatures. As many as you can.

The Repeal 719 website had both single signer sheets and 10 signature sheets if you are willing to gather other signatures. And why wouldn’t you be? These are your guns.

The website has everything you need to get going on this, including info on how to gather signatures and the reasons this bill is so dangerous.

Bring them to your gun club and share them with your friends.  We have, and the response has been great.

This is the first part of the fight, a part you can play a major role in.  After the referral is on the ballot, we will face a very expensive battle in a campaign against anti-gun billionaires but now we need SIGNATURES. We are NOT expecting any help from the National Gun Lobby. Please do your part.

The battle to overturn Brian Boquist’s gun confiscation law, SB 719, has begun. A ballot referendum has been filed and your help is critically important. We will provide updates with website information as it becomes available but for now please see the link on Bill Post’s website to get started fighting back against this outrageous attack on our rights and and common sense. http://billpost.us/2017/08/24/repeal-719-ballot-referendum-initiative/

On August 16th, Kate Brown signed SB 719 into law.

This bill, sponsored by Senators Brian Boquist and Ginny Burdick, allows the police to confiscate firearms from people who have been neither convicted of, nor accused of a crime. These confiscations will be based solely on ex parte testimony of people who need have no mental health credentials but can claim that another person is a threat to themselves or others.

Testimony from mental health professionals may NOT be considered. The respondent will receive no notice of this action and no opportunity to defend himself against the order until after his firearms have been confiscated. 

The bill offers no help for people who are suicidal and no protection for people living with someone who is genuinely dangerous.

You may lose your guns if you have ever had a DUI or if you have legally purchased a firearm in the last 6 months.

 

07.05.17

Senate Bill 719, Brian Boquist’s gun confiscation bill, is scheduled for a vote on the House floor tomorrow.