Caving to the House Democrats tantrum-like sit-in on the House floor, Speaker Paul Ryan has capitulated to their demands and has promised a vote on an anti-gun bill next week.
While it is unclear exactly which bill he will be hearing, it’s likely to be one approved by the National Rifle Association.
The bill will most likely allow the government to forbid gun sales to persons on secret “terrorist watch lists.”
As usual, these lists will be poorly crafted, badly reviewed and constantly misused. As many Oregonians know, you can be denied a gun for no reason and then it becomes your problem to correct it. That’s what politicians are now calling “due process”; your “right” to spend vast sums of time and money proving your innocence although you have never been accused of a crime.
Clearly, people who are so dangerous they are not allowed to buy guns (legally of course, they can always get them illegally) should not be walking the streets. The fact is, nothing being promoted in response to the Orlando shooting would have had any effect on that terrorist attack, or any other mass shooting. The politicians know that, their goal is not to stop mass shootings or any other terrorist attack, their goal is to disarm you.
No gun control bill is a good gun control bill, but by allowing a vote, Ryan is opening the door for endless amendments that can make it far worse. NRA should be opposing any new restrictions on gun rights. We need to control terrorists, not tools.
Both Oregon Senators and 4 out 5 Oregon Congress members have called for more attacks on the Second Amendment.
One of them, Kurt Schrader, is regularly endorsed by the NRA. We have asked the NRA if they plan to endorse him again. They have not responded.
Please consider contacting NRA’s Federal lobbyist, Brandi Graham Pensoeau, and demand NRA end their support for gun grabbing Schrader. (202-651-2581 bgraham@nrahq.org)
Schrader has a rock solid pro-gun opponent and we should not have a national gun rights group supporting a vocally anti-gun candidate.
Our lone Republican member of Congress, Greg Walden, has made no statement we can find on how he will vote on more attacks on the Constitution.
If you live in Walden’s district, please contact him and ask what he is doing to block votes on more dangerous gun control bills.
At a time when we are in the most danger, it is insanity that our elected representatives are assisting in disarming us.
Although several gun control bills died in the Senate, the battle is far from over. Two Republican Senators are pushing legislation they hope will be seen as a “compromise” with gun grabbers.
As you might expect, what they are proposing would have absolutely no effect on the kind of mass shootings that have created the latest firestorm against gun rights.
In the wake of the Orlando massacre, Senator Ron Wyden took to the Senate floor to demand background checks at gun shows and for gun sales on Craig’s List. Of course, this was typical Wyden buffoonery. Craig’s List has never allowed gun sales and the radical Muslim who murdered the patrons of the Orlando bar did not get his guns at a gun show.
But now, Maine Senator Susan Collins and New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte are proposing legislation that would block the sale of guns to people on two terrorist watch list subsets: the no-fly list, which prohibits individuals from boarding a plane, and the “selectee list,” which requires individuals to undergo additional screening before boarding.
Of course, the Muslim extremist who shot 100 people in Orlando was on no list in spite of being on law enforcement’s radar for a very long time.
The proposed legislation would allow people to seek “due process” to have their names removed from the lists, if they had many, many thousands of dollars to pay the legal fees they would incur in this very lengthy process.
At one time in America you were innocent until proven guilty. Now we are much like the rest of the world. If you want to exercise a right, you have to prove you are innocent.
“If you’re too dangerous to board a commercial plane, it stands to reason that you shouldn’t be able to buy a gun,” Senator Ayotte said on the Senate floor Monday. “It’s simple as that and people on both sides of the aisle I think agree on that in principle.”
Of course, that reasoning is simple, and simply absurd. If you are too dangerous to board a plane or buy a gun, you are too dangerous to build a bomb, drive a car onto the sidewalk or walk around without a jailer.
Today we saw again the pointlessness of all of these politically motivated regulations. The Oregon State Police posted the results of last month’s background checks for gun purchases. 198 people were denied gun buys. 152 of them were identified as felons by OSP. The total number of arrests for these desperados? Exactly zero. (The State Police do not provide info on the total number of the far more numerous delays.)
Every day in Oregon, and across the country, countless qualified people are denied gun purchases because of lousy government databases, yet Islamic murderers face no obstacles buying guns, and the theater continues.
Now, as so many times in the past, the NRA is aiding and abetting the gun grabbers by publicly stating that the victims of the Orlando massacre should not have been armed.
On ABC’s “This Week” NRA’s Chris Cox said “No one thinks that people should go into a nightclub drinking and carrying firearms,” he said. “That defies common sense. It also defies the law.”
LaPierre then released a very weak Twitter comment saying carrying in restaurants is “ok.” Chris Cox’s comment about it “defying the law” is flat out wrong in many places, including Oregon.
It is perfectly legal to be in a bar in Oregon with a firearm and legal to drink with a firearm. Yet, we have never seen the kind of wholesale slaughter that we saw in Orlando where having a gun in a bar is illegal.
Oregon Democrats have tried in the past to create more criminal safe zones by banning firearms in places that sell alcohol. (We see what that accomplished in Florida.)
When they do, you can rest assured they will be quoting LaPierre and Cox just as they did when we were defending a Medford teacher with a CHL, and LaPierre was giving speeches saying NO civilian should be allowed in a school with a firearm.
We are being attacked from a well funded enemy that will tell any lie to advance their agenda. The last thing we need is NRA giving them ammo.
In the wake of the Orlando massacre, liberal politicians, sycophant Republican “leaders,” and the mindless parrots in the media churned up their predictable demands that law abiding people be disarmed.
As always, they got almost all the “facts” wrong.
Although this case becomes more bizarre with each passing day, the left and their willing accomplices in the mainstream press, choose not to focus on the obvious but to insist that somehow the gun used by the killer was the true culprit. Not his adherence to radical Islam, not his own apparent self loathing homosexual tendencies, not his past violent and abusive behavior.
None of this is new of course, but it does seem that the engine of mindless drivel has gone into overdrive.
WANTED FOR MURDER.
In an editorial that appeared in the “Oregonian,” Samantha Swindler wrote:
“Ah, you might say, someone determined to kill masses of people will find a way. This is probably true. You can make explosives. You can go on a rampage with a pair of scissors. But it is far too easy to go on a rampage with a gun, in particular with an AR-15-style rifle. There’s a reason it’s the weapon of choice among mass murderers.”
Certainly comments like these help explain why the Oregonian is slowly disappearing into a one page, high school newspaper reproduced on a mimeograph machine, but because her blithering is so representative of what we are being bombarded with in the press, it’s worth examining.
Is it really easier to go on a “rampage with a gun” than it is to detonate a suicide vest? Can she really be that stupid? Is it really easier to go on a rampage with an AR-15 than it is with any other gun?Apparently not, because as we know, in spite of wall to wall mis-reporting, no AR-15 was involved. (As they virtually never are in the countless, ignored, shootings in Chicago.)
Is the AR-15 the “weapon of choice for mass murderers” as virtually every media outlet has proclaimed?
No. In fact, Mother Jones Magazine, a far left, anti-gun publication provides us with the research that demonstrates that most mass shootings do not involve firearms that are frequently mischaracterized as “assault weapons.” That’s of no importance to the purveyors of mendacity that dominate the airwaves and internet.
But to make her ignorant yapping even worse, Swindler goes on:
“Can’t we expand background checks and waiting periods for gun buyers? Can’t we place tighter restrictions on certain guns that maximize body counts?”
It is hard to imagine that someone who can find her way to work in the morning unassisted, could write something so astonishingly moronic. Perhaps she works from home.
Exactly what kind of “expanded background checks” would have had any affect on the murderous dog who killed the patrons of the “Pulse?”Really Samantha, you work for a newspaper. Have you ever considered reading one? Not only did the killer pass the firearms purchase background check so beloved by the Brady Bunch and local anti-rights groups and apparently a background check for a Florida concealed handgun license, but he undoubtably passed many other background checks as part of his job with a government contracted security company. This in spite of several investigations done on him by the FBI for his affiliations with known radical Islamic organizations and his well known anti-social temperament. Ironically, countless qualified people are denied firearms purchases every day because of the background check system that approved the Orlando murderer. Waiting periods? All accounts indicate, that like so many mass killings, this was planned long in advance.
Swindler also wants “tighter restrictions on certain guns that maximize body counts.”Once again we’re treated to the “only meant to kill as many people as quickly as possible” cliches, and the platitudes about “weapons of war” which, for some reason, people like Swindler are more than happy to supply to our police forces.
Swindler and her fellow travelers on the left are pathologically incapable of recognizing that people commit crimes. That is a problem that is actually difficult to deal with, so instead they, like the petulant Democrats in Congress who disrupted a moment of silence in honor of those killed in Orlando, demand that actions be taken to eliminate inanimate objects and punish the innocent.
It’s interesting to note that virtually all the anti-gun left insists that they don’t want to take people’s guns away. Well, only some guns. Only dangerous guns. (The fact is, of course, they do want to eliminate all guns, as evidenced by broad support by groups like Ceasefire Oregon for HB 3200 a few years ago which outlawed almost all modern firearms and called for warrantless searches by police.)
They continue to perpetuate the fantasy that some guns are “safer” because they aren’t black and don’t have pistol grips.They complain that guns like the AR-15 can be fired “too quickly” or “too accurately,” as though accuracy in a firearm is a bad thing and ARs fire faster than any other gun. (This of course when they are not complaining that ARs are made to “spray fire from the hip.”) They moan about “high capacity clips” as if there is some acceptable number of casualties in any mass murder. They ignore the reality that the patrons of the “Pulse” were disarmed by law and, that given that the shooter apparently met no resistance once inside the club, in spite of being outnumbered hundreds to one, the kind of gun he used made precious little difference.
They will dishonestly claim they are not after “hunting rifles,” only the “too powerful assault weapons” like ARs which, of course, are far less powerful than most “hunting rifles.” They ignore the fact that almost every firearm ever made was designed originally to be a “weapon of war.” But for now, if they were designed for a war a long time ago, they’re ok. Even if they were used in America’sreal largest mass shooting. And of course, any weapon is permissible if it’s being used by the state for mass murder.
Really, “chamber loaded indicators” and “magazine disconnects” could have saved countless lives in Orlando. And who knows how many would have been spared if only the shooter had chosen a “safer” gun, like the shotguns used in so many mass murders and recommended by our Vice President.
In spite of our “leaders” refusal to acknowledge it, and whatever the motivation for the rampage in Orlando, the United States and much of the west is under siege byreligious Muslim extremists. Much of Europe has voluntarily disarmed and is paying the price in blood, rape and a loss of national identity. Americans would be fools to follow that path.
To call yesterday’s 9th Circuit Appeals Court ruling “tortured” would be to elevate it well above any status it deserves.
The ruling in Edward Peruta v. County of San Diego concluded that there is no Constitutional right for a member of the public to carry a firearm concealed outside their home. The Court did not address the constitutionality of carrying firearms outside the home openly, but in California where this case originated, open carry is outlawed as well, so this decision could well eliminate the rights of Californians to “bear arms” outside their homes at all.
Imagine this reasoning extended to other rights articulated in the Bill of Rights.
Amendment 1
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances as long as they do not leave their homes.
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized provided the people do not leave their homes.
Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation provided that the person in question remain in his home at all times.
Of course it sounds absurd. But it perfectly follows the judicial “reasoning” in this case. And in fact, while the militant left (who no doubt are cheering this decision) would argue that suggesting that we are heading down that path is an indication of paranoia, it is already happening.
The notion that one gives up a fundamental right when one steps through his front door is so non-sensical as to be the stuff of parody and farce, but it is actually not a surprise coming from the most liberal and overturned court in the nation.
How will this affect the states unlucky enough to be within the Circuit?Time will tell. Three of those states; Idaho, Alaska, and Arizona already recognize a person’s right to carry a concealed firearm with no requirement to ask permission from the state. Montana allows persons to carry concealed firearms with no state issued permission, if they are outside cities or towns.
But Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, like California, already do not recognize a person’s right to carry a firearm concealed without requesting permission from the state. Unlike California however, none of those states allow the issuing authority to arbitrarily decide if your life is worthy of protection. If you meet the qualifications, you get a license to exercise your “right.”
That’s what this case was actually about. Whether a state agency or actor has the authority to determine who is worthy of self defense. The 9th Circuit agreed with the state and said that the value of your life could be determined by a government bureaucrat who could simply decide that person A’s life was worth protecting and person B’s was not.
The 9th referred repeatedly to the Heller Decision, a Supreme Court case that gun owners often mistakenly perceive as “pro-gun,” to justify the ruling, and it’s safe to say that sooner or later this issue will reach the Supreme Court as well.* That could be an extremely dangerous outcome especially if more conservative justices suddenly die under mysterious circumstances, or if another Clinton is elected to the White House.
What this ruling means for Oregonians is that the far left, anti-gun axis that controls our legislature and the executive branch, will feel emboldened to continue its assault on license holders. While there is nothing new about this (Prozanski and Burdick have been trying, unsuccessfully, for years to attack license holders) what it all but guarantees is a tidal wave of new proposed restrictions on all gun owners. That’s why every possible effort must be made to make gains in the legislature and our county commissions. It’s why this presidential election could quite easily determine whether you will have any gun rights at all in the near future. It’s why your vote and your willingness to help get out the vote is so crucial. For the first time we have a candidate who has built almost her entire campaign around destroying what is left of the Second Amendment, and while almost all candidates are question marks, Clinton is a drop-dead sure thing who simply must be stopped.
On a Federal level, all we can do is urge you in the strongest possible way to vote and make your vote count. On a state wide level we hope you will continue to support our efforts to protect our rights from attacks from the left. We did it this year, stopping all anti-gun legislation. We are going to need your help more than ever during the coming elections and beyond.
The 2016 Primary elections are coming up. By now you should have received your voters guide.
This election is critical. Governor Kate Brown and the militant anti-gunners in the legislature are seething that they were not able to pass any more attacks on your rights in the 2016 session and they have their sights set on us in 2017.
There is only one way to stop them. We must defeat enough of them to keep them from having the votes they need to destroy the Second Amendment in Oregon.
Tomorrow is the last day to register to vote in the May Primary elections. If you are not registered, are not sure if you are registered, or are not registered in a political party, please visit this site right away. You simply cannot sit this one out.
The other side will do anything to get their vote out, anything.We must get our people to fill in their ballots and protect our rights.
While there are some uncontested primaries, there are many contested ones as well and they are important races.
We have updated our Candidate Ratings and encourage you to make use of them. If the candidates in your district have not responded, you should ask them to do so. Keep checking back as the election gets closer as we will continue to update the ratings as late responses come in.
There are some great people running in contested primaries. People like Kathy Lamberg in the 14th House District and Mike Nearman in the 23rd House District.
In Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, currently held by Democrat Kurt Schrader, all the Republican Candidates have expressed pro-gun positions, but we feel the strongest is Colm Willis.
Your vote matters. Your rights hang in the balance. Please take action this election and remember, Oregon Firearms Federation Political Action Committee has been able to help good candidates in the past because of your generous support.
If you have not already done so, please consider a donation to OFFPAC so we can continue to help solid pro-gun candidates. Your donation may qualify for a tax credit and could cost you nothing. Please see this page for more information.
To make a contribution use this link and be sure to pick “Political Action Committee” from the “Donation Category” drop down menu.We are facing billionaire opponents and every penny counts.
Today, March 3rd, marked the end of the 2016 legislative session.
These even-year, short sessions were sold as an opportunity to address emergencies and budget issues and nothing more. Instead, this session was used by Oregon Democrats to push complex, expensive and divisive measures in a time frame that allowed little debate, and little analysis.
The Republicans in the legislature did what they could to stand in the way, but the numbers being what they are, the left got most of what it wanted.
What it did NOT get, is more restrictions on your Second Amendment rights.
SB 1551, a horrible, Soviet style, bill designed to take away gun rights through secret, unfounded, and unproven allegations was derailed early in the session by your incessant activism.The bill did show, once more, the true intentions of Floyd Prozanski, whose war on gun owners was stepped up after the people of his district sought to recall him.
Next we faced HB 4147. This bill, by anti-gun extremist Jennifer Williamson, sought to eliminate the one small safeguard the law provides for people who are delayed on purchases of firearms with no justification. Her intention was to allow the Oregon State Police to deny a purchase forever simply because their own databasing and background checks are so faulty.
Anti-gun billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, flew in victims of the Charleston church shooting to add a layer of theatrics to their false charge that this meager safeguard was a “loophole.” In fact, nothing in this bill would have prevented that shooting and the sponsors and supporters of the bill all knew that.
It was the typical craven lies of the right’s haters and the entrepreneurial victims lobby.Dozens of stories were told of how this bill would protectwomen from domestic abuse, all of which were false, and an amendment, introduced by House Rep Sherrie Sprenger, which actually would have protected victims of domestic violence, was defeated in a party line vote by the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, led by House Rep Jeff Barker.
Barker, who has long stood as the most pro-gun Democrat in the Oregon House turned hard left this session and led the charge to pass the bill and defeat any pro-gun amendments. While he did reduce the time the State Police could delay a purchase from forever to ten days, the reality is ten days could still be a death sentence for a person facing a deadly threat.So the bill clearly hurt most, the people it pretended to protect.
Barker assigned the bill’s sponsor, Jennifer Williamson, the role of carrying the bill on the House floor. But somehow, before the floor debate, Barker was forced to carry the bill himself. No doubt this was punishment imposed on Barker by House Speaker Tina Kotekfor Barker’s past support of gun rights and his refusal to support SB 941 last year.
The bill passed the House by the single vote needed for passage. The vote was 31 to 28 with three Democrats voting “no”:Brad Witt, Caddy McKeown and Deborah Boone. (Boone voted for SB 941 last year.) The bill was assigned to the Senate Rules Committee within minutes of passing the House.
Throughout the process, OFF supporters worked tirelessly to stop this terrible, right’s stripping bill.It seemed like once again, what Bloomberg paid for he was going to get, but because you never gave up, the bill was laid to rest in the Senate Committee.With all the division and rancor the Democrats had created, they just did not have the stomach for another gun fight.
Make no mistake, you made the difference. It was your efforts that killed this dangerous and evil bill. You have much to be proud of.
So congratulate yourself on ajob well done. Enjoy a short breather, and then gear up. Elections are coming and your participation is critical. You have seen once again that your voice matters. Make sure your vote matters.
2017 will be here before you know it.There will be many more Bloomberg funded attacks on our rights.
Thanks for all you have done for Oregon and your support for the Oregon Firearms Federation.
The bill uses a totally fabricated “loophole” to allow the State Police to deny you a purchase (with no justification) even longer than they can now.
The reality is that the current law which allows, (but does not require) a gun dealer to transfer a firearm after three business days have “elapsed” contains a safeguard, not a “loophole.”The purpose of the safeguard was to address the kinds of problems we see in Oregon every single day, where qualified buyers are delayed and denied by the Oregon State Police for no reason.
As we have said over and over, adding time to these delays (the original bill would have allowed the delay to be forever) could very well be a death sentence to a person whose life was in jeopardy.
An amendment that was offered by Republican Sherrie Sprenger, which would have offered some small protection to victims of domestic violence, was immediately shot down by Chair Jeff Barker and the rest of the Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill was sent to the House floor where it passed with the absolute fewest number of votes needed. Three Democrats joined all the House Republicans who voted no.
Within minutes the bill was read in the Senate and assigned to the Senate Rules Committee.
As you may know, the Democrats in the legislature have been doing everything they can to ram through complex and dangerous bills in a short session that was never intended for this kind of legislation.The Republicans have been doing all they can to slow down the worst of these bills.
So now the rumor is that the Senate President, Peter Courtney, does NOT want to have HB 4147 come to the Senate floor for what will surely be another divisive battle, especially not in an election year.
But make no mistake.This bill is not officially dead, and in the past Courtney has revived bills that were officially dead, given them a new bill number and tried to slip them through in the closing moments of the session.We have no reason to think he won’t try it again.
The future of this bill is now in the hands of Courtney.We have seen him pull or condone shifty moves in the past.
Please contact him and tell him to keep HB 4147 off the floor.
Talking points:
There is no “Charleston Loophole”The killer in Charleston got his gun because of a long series of mistakes on the part of law enforcement, not because of the 3 day safeguard.
The people who will be hurt most by this bill are the victims of domestic violence who need a firearm NOW. Abusers and mass killers have plenty of time to plan their acts and acquire whatever weapons they want to use.
The State Police do a terrible job now of conducting background checks and ignore most requests for corrections unless a gun friendly legislator calls them. Gun owners in Democrat districts are on their own.
Gun dealers already have the discretion to not complete a transfer, and many won’t. But it makes no sense to tell a dealer he cannot complete a transfer of a firearm, to someone he knows well, for up to 15 days.
It is common for the OSP to delay a transfer for someone one day, and approve one the next day while the original delay is still in effect. The system simply does not work and the people of Oregon should not be punished for the failure of the state’s system.
House Bill 4147 has passed out of the House with 31 “yes” votes, the bare minimum required.
Three Democrats voted “no”, Brad Witt, Deborah Boone and Caddy McKeowan.
As expected, the anti-rights zealots trotted out many stories of domestic violence and mass killings, not a single one of which would have been affected by this bill.
House Rep Jeff Barker and others twisted the truth by claiming that this bill would not endanger victims of domestic violence.This is 100% false.He mentioned the provision in last year’s SB 941 that allows a person facing “imminent danger” to borrow a firearm and implied that somehow this allowed them to get a gun from a dealer without a background check.
(Barker admitted that not a single mass shooting in the last 5 years would have been prevented by this bill.)
The fact is, SB 941 is so badly written that it is highly unlikely that a woman who feared for her life would be able to acquire a firearm for protection, and even if she did, she could only get it from a private party, not a dealer.
Those victims who simply don’t have friends or family members who not only own guns but are willing to put themselves in legal jeopardy to lend one, are simply out of luck.
The proponents of the bill all agree this is only a step towards more restrictions. The bill now moves to the Senate whereit has been assigned to the Senate Rules Committee.
This bill is going to move very quickly.Please contact the Rules Committee and your State Senator and urge a “No Vote”
HB 4147, Jennifer Williamson’s attack on victims of domestic violence was scheduled for a vote on the House Floor today after being bumped off yesterday’s schedule.
The bill is now scheduled to be heard Monday. That gives us a few more days to keep up the pressure. If this dangerous bill passes, the most vulnerable members of our community, victims of stalkers, predators and domestic abusers, will be forced into an even worse system than the one they suffer with now. A woman who fears for the safety of herself and her children will be told she has to wait at least ten days to get a self defense firearm but she could be denied indefinitely if she cannot find a sympathetic gun dealer.
This time delay could be a death sentence.
Please use the automailer below to send a message to the legislature to vote NO on this terrible bill. A copy of the message follows:
Dear Legislator:
I hope I can count on you to protect the victims of domestic violence. If HB 4147 passes, women who are in danger from stalkers and domestic predators will be at the mercy of a flawed system that can literally deny them protection forever.
Currently, gun dealers have the option, but not the requirement, to provide a life saving firearm to a domestic violence victim after three days if the OSP background check fails. The sponsor of this bill has testified that the check provides false delays 95% of the time!
This is dangerous and unacceptable and puts the most vulnerable at great risk. Extending that delay achieves nothing but creating more fear for people who have nothing to protect themselves but a paper restraining order. Please don’t buy into the misleading narrative that these victims can simply “borrow a gun from a friend.” Very few people have friends willing to lend them a firearm especially now with the vague and confusing language of SB 941, which puts all gun owners at risk. Gun dealers should have to option of transferring a firearm to a person they know. Protect victims of domestic violence, vote NO on HB 4147.
The entire day was spent debating the Democrat’s minimum wage increase with a short breakfor some leftist protestors who disrupted proceedings in both Houses.
HB 4147 has been moved to tomorrow’s schedule.
The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jeff Barker, who was the deciding vote on not only passing HB 4147 out of committee, but also was responsible for killing an amendment that would have protected victims of domestic violence, assigned the bill’s chief sponsor, Jennifer Williamson to “carry” the bill on the House floor.Although Barker (who has a history of being supportive of gun rights ) told one reporter that he might vote against the bill on the floor, after voting for it in committee,Barker is now carrying the bill along with co-carrier Lew Fredrick.
These are strange bedfellows since Barker was a police officer and Lew Fredrick has made a career of introducing anti-police bills.
If it passes in the House tomorrow, it will be sent over to the Senate.Because of deadlines it probably will NOT be assigned to Senate Judiciary, instead it will probably go to the Senate Rules Committee.
The Senate will announce tomorrow that they are going to one hour notice for hearings, which will effectively cut out almost all voter input into this bill since there will be almost no way for the average person to be in Salem in time to testify.
Please contact all members of the Legislature to voice your opposition. You can still use our autodialer at the bottom of this alert.
Also please consider contacting all members of the Rules Committee to express your opposition. One member of the committee, Brian Boquist, has long been a staunch supporter of gun rights.
Tragically, Senator Boquist’s son passed away on Tuesday.Out of respect for Senator Boquist’s long support for our rights and his loss, we ask that you not contact his office. He is on our side and does not need to hear from us.
House Bill 4147 will be voted on in the House as early as tomorrow.
As you know, this bill is one more incremental attack on gun owners and another slap in the face to the most vulnerable Oregonians.Rest assured, it is simply a stepping stone for more regulations and restrictions that the anti-gun majority in the Oregon Legislature have promised.
The deciding vote to pass this bill out of committee was cast by Chair Jeff Barker, who in the past has been a supporter of gun rights. Not only was he the deciding vote to move the bill to the full House for a vote, he was the deciding vote against an amendment that would have provided a small degree of protection to the victims of domestic violence.
Please, if you have not already done so, use the automailer at the bottom of this alert to tell legislators to vote “NO” on HB 4147.
And if you already have, please consider doing it again. It is just that important.
The two bills we have been warning you about were scheduled for a work session today in the House Judiciary Committee.
House Bill 4045 and House Bill 4147were both on the docket.Both bills were trouble for gun owners with HB 4147 being big trouble.
4147 would allow indefinite delays of firearms transfers for people who are totally qualified to purchase but were stopped by an incompetent bureaucracy.
Today was the deadline for bills to move out of committee in the chamber where they originated.
Because of your efforts, HB 4045, which would have required mandatory minimum sentences for persons who may have inadvertently been in unlawful possession of a firearm, (such as a family member who borrowed your car before you removed every gun after a trip to the range) has died. Good work.
The even more egregious HB 4147 was amended to allowa firearms transfer after 10 days, which is still totally unacceptable. The amendment also calls for complicated mandatory reporting of any person who is denied a transfer. There are no protections for persons denied in error.
An amendment that would have offered some safeguards to persons who are victims of domestic violence was, of course, voted down by all the Democrats, the same Democrats who claim to be the champions of victims of domestic violence.
Jeff Barker, the Chair of the Committee, who always supported gun rights in the past, folded on every motion and voted to pass the bill to the floor.
The bill now goes to the House Floor where we need to pull out all the stops to defeat it.
Please use our automailer to let legislators know where you stand on HB 4147.
The new automailer has the following message:
Dear Legislator,
HB 4147 is a vicious attack on the rights of law abiding gun owners.It’s clear that liberals in the Oregon Legislature are working overtime to chip away at the rights of Oregonians. An amendment that would have provided safeguards for the victims of domestic violence was voted down in committee on a party line vote…by Democrats. Vote “NO”on HB 4147.
UPDATE …. THIS BILL HAS BEEN SCHEDULED FOR A “WORK SESSION” ON WEDNESDAY.
As you know, HB 4147 was not acted on yesterday in the House Judiciary Committee. This bill will allow the Oregon State Police to deny you a lawful firearms transfer indefinitely. ( As in forever.)
Currently both Oregon and Federal law have safeguards for people who are unjustly prevented from purchasing firearms due to errors by the Oregon State Police.
Oregon’s safeguards are minimal and insufficient and every year thousands of Oregonians are denied their rights because of the flawed background check system and now the Democrats in the Oregon legislature want to remove even those small protections.
A “hearing” was held on the bill and out of staters were flown in by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg to promote this attack on your rights, but no vote was taken.
We MUST pull out all the stops to prevent this bill from becoming law. The bill’s own sponsor has admitted the system does not work. She has testified that 95% of people who are “delayed” are delayed with no justification. Yet now she wants them delayed forever.
Currently, the FBI, upon whom the Oregon State Police rely for information on background checks, is not even conducting investigations of improper and unfounded delays. So, if you are trying to buy a firearm and the State Police have bad information on you, you could very well be out of luck. This kind of abuse is exactly why we have always opposed this prior restraint on a fundamental right. This dangerous bill has a very good chance of passing and only you can stop it. The Chairman of the Committee, Jeff Barker, who has always voted pro-gun in the past has indicated he is prepared to vote for this bill and pass it out of committee. This is a very bad sign.
Please contact your legislators with the pre-written message below:
Dear Legislator, House Bill 4147 would allow the Oregon State Police to prevent the lawful transfer of a firearm forever. The bill does not contain a single safeguard for people who are delayed on a firearms background check with no justification. Current law has carefully crafted and seriously considered protections to prevent a faulty system from denying a person’s rights. They are not “loopholes.” They are safeguards. Small safeguards. If you wonder why people are so distrustful of government intentions, this bill will explain it all. The sponsor of the bill has testified that 95% of the people who are delayed by the State Police are delayed in error. If the person who is promoting this attack on our liberties admits this, what more do you need to oppose this dangerous legislation? If people in your district were denied the right to vote because the Secretary of State had a faulty program, would you explain that it was just a small inconvenience and they should not object to waiting six months or a year to exercise their rights? If not, you must oppose this legislation.
That’s how Floyd Prozanski described his own vendetta driven, anti-gun billafter he and other legislators received thousands of emails and calls opposing it.
Keep in mind, Ginny Burdick has already announced her plans for an even worse bill some time in the future, but for now it looks like your efforts have derailed their plans to use secret accusations from malicious people to crush your gun rights.Great job and thank you.
Now we really need to double down on our efforts to kill HB 4147. This is Jennifer Williamson’s bill that will use the errors in the background check system as a way to deny gun rights to Oregonians. Under her bill if you are delayed on a purchase, no matter how qualified you are, a dealer may not allow you take possession until, (and if) the OSP gets around to giving you permission. And they can take literally forever.
Ironically, Williamson has publicly acknowledged that the system is flawed and “there’s nothing we can do about it.”She has also expressed her “shock” at how many background checks are run, clearly displaying her disdain for lawful purchases.
Williamson’s bill would eliminate your ability to get a gun if the State Police cannot accurately conduct a background check, which is all too often a reality.If they cannot do their jobs, you lose your rights with no recourse.Naturally, that’s the goal. Williamson does not approve of people buying guns at all, so she hopes to use the flaws in the system to prevent you from exercising your rights.
To Williamson, every right is a “loophole” that must be closed, and every attack on your liberties is “common sense.”It’s the perfect leftist scam, build a system that doesn’t work, force people to be subjected to it and then punish them when the system fails.
Williamson has claimed that “only” 1800 people are going to have their rights taken away but even then admits that (according to her)only about 500 would actually be prohibited persons. But the Oregonian has reported that last year over 8000 people had their 2nd Amendment rights put on hold and of those 95% should not have. Even those numbers seem low.
So we have to stop this.As you know, HB 4147 is currently scheduled for a hearing this Thursday at 3pm in the House Judiciary Committee. UPDATE. THIS MEETING HAS BEEN MOVED TO ROOM 50 IN THE BASEMENT OF THE CAPITOL
The Chairman of the committee is Jeff Barker who has been pro-gun in the past so it is troubling that he is hearing this dangerous and disingenuous bill.Please contact him and the other members of the committee and demand that they not use a broken system to take away your gun rights.
If you can come to the hearing to testify, please do. If you cannot, you can send testimony in PDF format to committee assistant Catherine Heaton catherine.heaton@state.or.us
Contact info for all the House Judiciary Committee members is available here.
The message is simple,
Dear Representative,
The Oregon background check system is faulty. Every year thousands of people’s rights are infringed as a result of the inability of the OSP ID unit to accurately complete the mandated “check.”
It makes no sense to further punish those people by removing the one small safeguard the law allows for people who are the victims of a broken system.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has changed the location of the hearing on the Prozanski’s secret accusation bill.
SB 1551 is currently scheduled to be heard on Wednesday Feb 3 at 8am, however the location for that hearing has changed.
The new location will be in HR 50 which is in the basement of the Capitol.
Hearings are moved to that room when they expect a larger than usual turn out, which means it’s likely that the Democrats will be busing in anti-gunners to push this dangerous and unconstitutional bill.
If you can come and testify please do. If you cannot, written testimony can submitted in PDF format to committee assistant Kristi Arrington. kristi.arrington@state.or.us
SB 1551 allows certain persons, including family members, school personnel and medical professionals to make an accusation that you are having a “mental health crisis” so your right to acquire a firearm is taken away.Accusers are not required to have any mental health credentials and some can make a report without ever having met you.You are not allowed to know your rights have been taken, by whom, or for how long.
SB 1551 does away with due process and cripples your gun rights based on secret accusations by unqualified reporters whose only agenda may be to prevent you from exercising your 2nd Amendment rights.Please make your voice heard.
