Category: OFF Alerts

1.22.15

Today the Yamhill County Commission unanimously passed Resolution  011415.

This resolution expresses the County’s opposition to any expansion of Oregon’s failed “background check” system.

This was a great victory and a terrific first step to getting other counties to stand up to Portland and say “not here.”

We are grateful to all who came and voiced their support for the resolution. Oregonians traveled from as far away as Rogue River to express their approval. No one testified against it.

Now we need to get other counties to step up. Yamhill has taken the lead. Where does your county stand?

It’s critical that each of  us hold our county commissioners accountable. If the bullies from Portland try to control the entire state, it is the sheriffs and county commissioners who can stop them.

We have just received the latest numbers from the Oregon State Police concerning their denials of firearms purchases. Once again they demonstrate that the entire system is a joke intended to do nothing more than harass the law abiding.

In December of 2014, 197 persons were denied firearms purchases. Of those, the Oregon State Police claim that 139 were “prohibited persons”, you know, bad guys who are breaking the law if they try to buy a gun. Of those 139, the number arrested and taken off the streets so they could not commit further mayhem was a whopping 3.

Yes, you read that right. Three.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to write the Yamhill County Commissioners. Special thanks to everyone who took the time to come and testify, and of course, our thanks to the Commissioners for their willingness to stand up for the people they represent.

01.16.15

The 2015 session of the Oregon Legislature begins on Feb.2.

As you well know, we will be dealing with plenty of attacks on our rights. With both houses under the control of anti-gunners and with a vocally anti-gun governor, we can expect to see all manner of anti-gun legislation squeezed in between tax hikes.

So get ready. We have listed the gun related bills that have been introduced so far here. Rest assured there will be plenty more, so keep an eye out for updates and what you can do.

We continue to believe that one of the best ways we can counter the anti-gunners in Portland is by getting sheriffs and county commissioners to stand up and oppose new restrictions. If your county and sheriff have not taken a stand, contact them. Remind them that their first obligation is to protect your rights and that an uncompromising position on their part in defense of your freedom will go along way in putting the brakes on any further infringements.

Numerous counties have already drafted or passed pro-gun resolutions or ordinances. We need more. On January 22, Yamhill County will be hearing a resolution opposing expansion of Oregon’s failed background check system.   Please contact your county commissioners and tell them to step up now before anti-gun  bills are racing through the legislature.

Meanwhile, be sure to get active yourself. Send a message to the legislature that you will not tolerate the proposed universal gun registration and background checks by using our legislative communication page.

You can also sign a postcard to the Speaker of the House with the message that you expect her to protect your rights and you’ll be entered to win a S&W 9mm Shield. See the details here.

12.17.14

Once again the numbers are in from the State  Police. Once again they show the sheer folly of expanding the failed background check system to transfers between friends and relatives. This proposal, which is causing chaos and resistance in Washington State,  will be introduced in Oregon for the February legislative session, if not before. No doubt the bill is already drafted.

Based on the numbers provided by OSP, it is clear that the current law, which applies to sales at gun stores and gun shows, serves only to harass the law-abiding.

As we have seen from previous reports, here and here, in spite of the hype and lies from anti-gun politicians and tiny, but well funded, anti-rights organizations, virtually no criminals or persons with mental illness are being prevented from getting guns due to background checks. Of course plenty of qualified people are!

Echoing the statistics we have from previous months, while lots of people are told they may not exercise their rights, almost no one is arrested for an illegal gun purchase. So, if they really are prohibited persons (and we hear from plenty who are not) they are almost always free to walk away and get a gun elsewhere. This, in spite of Kitzhaber’s rule that a State Trooper must be removed from patrol to “investigate” every denial.

We have received reports from gun dealers that they were directed by the OSP ID unit to lie to customers they knew were “denied” so they could be kept in the store until a Trooper arrived to conduct an “investigation.”

In one such case, after a wait of an hour, a Trooper came to the gun store, informed the “buyer” that he was denied due to an “outstanding warrant” in another state. The Trooper then turned and left the store taking no action against the desperado in question. And while the gun haters love to throw around the numbers of denials, as if they meant anything, they don’t tell you this part of the story.

In November, the State Police denied 203 transfers, less than 1% of the total attempted transactions. Floyd Prozanski and Moms Demand Action will be touting that number as a great success story. But of all those denials, the number of people who were actually arrested, and prevented from getting guns (for however long they were in custody)  was a whopping 8 people!  Of those 8, 6 of them were actively wanted at the time of the attempted transfer. That means that over 80% of people who were actively wanted at the time of the attempted transfer walked out of the store!

And they tell us this is keeping guns out of the hands of the “bad guys.”

We have no way of knowing how many people who were denied never should have been, but we do know that of the 203 who were told they could not buy a gun, 69 were being “investigated,” 11 were challenging the denial, 7 were given “tickets” and 39 were closed out as “Investigation Complete, No Action.” So, over 96% of the denials were dubious at best, and many were clearly totally unjustified.

Think of when this policy applies to your loan or gift of a firearm to a friend or relative! Imagine what it will be like when the police falsely flag your friend or loved one as a “prohibited person” and send a cop to your house to “investigate” them.

Not only will this be a law enforcement nightmare, it will turn the police and their natural allies, gun owning citizens, against each other. Since this law is obviously not being used to stop criminals, will it only be used to stop you?

It is clear that we need to rally our sheriffs to oppose this nonsense. OFF has contacted every sheriff in the State asking that they stand up and say “no” to this infringement. The Sheriffs Association’s position is that it will be up to each sheriff to determine where he stands on this. Where does your Sheriff stand?

If he won’t step up to help us stop this, will he send a deputy to arrest you if you give a gun to a friend? If he won’t go on record opposing these dangerous restrictions, does he deserve your vote?

It might be time to ask him.

We are working on new tools to help you track your sheriff’s stand. But for now, you can use the bottom of this link for contact info for your sheriff.

Meanwhile be sure to plan to be in Salem on Feb.9th for a rally for gun rights. You can learn more here.

12.11.14

The first anti-gun bill was introduced in draft form yesterday by the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

The draft was introduced as a “committee bill” which means whoever requested it prefers to keep her name off it.

The draft would expand the prohibition of firearms possession to “municipal” and “justice” courts.

As you know, most courts already forbid persons, even those with concealed handgun licenses, from having firearms.

As of now, the law does not include “municipal” courts in the prohibition. This bill would add them. This is dangerous and unneeded.

First of all, the courts have held that even though municipal courts (places where you typically go to pay speeding tickets) are not included in the statute as places where guns are forbidden, the judge of such a court may forbid them through his own rule. Many already do. So why do we need this law?

Many,  if not most , municipal courts are rooms in other facilities or are used for other purposes in addition to being used as courtrooms. For example, some are used for city council meetings. Some are in police stations or other buildings that are used for many purposes.

Right now, when court is in session, a municipal court judge can ban guns in his courtroom while court is in session. Under this proposed legislation, any room that was used as a municipal courtroom, regardless of what else it was used for, or what else was done in the building it was housed in, would be treated, for all intents and purposes, as if it were a courthouse!

(2) “Court facility” means a courthouse or that portion of any other building occupied by a circuit court, a justice court, a municipal court, the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court or the Oregon Tax Court or occupied by personnel related to the operations of those courts, or in which activities related to the operations of those courts take place.

By this wide definition, any building housing one of these courts would become effectively off limits to gun owners. There are countless places that gun owners will  be prevented from going while armed, even when they have legitimate business that is not related to court activities.

The potential complications and ramifications of this proposed legislation are enormous.  And, it’s all totally unnecessary given that any judge can make this rule for his courtroom now.

This is just the first of many foolish and dangerous bills that will be on our screen in the coming months.  Get ready to help us shoot them down.

You can see the draft here.

12.05.14

As you know, the next legislative session will be bringing a flood of anti-gun bills. Given the makeup of the legislature, some very bad legislation could well become law. So we believe that the battles for our rights may very well come down to whether our county commissioners and sheriffs are willing to stand up to Portland.

The opening salvos in that battle are now being fired.

Oregon Firearms has contacted every sheriff in the state asking for their commitment to protecting Second Amendment Rights, irrespective of what anti-gun bills are passed in the legislature.  We are also reaching out to the county commissioners.

On December 2nd,  Clackamas County Commissioner Tootie Smith addressed the commission about the prospect of the county taking a pro-active, pro-gun stand. The audio of that meeting can be heard here. The discussion about gun rights starts at 35.30.

In the audio, County Commissioner Martha Schrader, (ex-wife of anti-gun congressman Kurt Schrader) takes a jab at OFF and muses about our “agenda”.  Apparently Martha is still upset that OFF supported her opponent, pro-gun Alan Olsen, when they were in a race for State Senate.

Commissioner Paul Savas says he tried to contact us numerous times in the past and got no return calls. What he fails to mention is that his calls were all fund raising calls. He also neglects to mention his lack of response when we pointed out to him that he had helped pass an ordinance regulating gun dealers that he had no authority to implement.

There can be no doubt that only Commissioner Tootie Smith was willing to take a principled stand while the rest of the commission looks for any excuse to either do nothing or actively oppose gun rights.

Please don’t underestimate the power of your county commissioners and your sheriffs. If they are willing to take a stand for your rights, a powerful message will go to the legislature.

We’ll keep you up to date on when and if your sheriff takes a stand. (As usual, Sheriff Glenn Palmer of Grant County has already taken a pro-gun pledge!) But until they do, please don’t hesitate to contact them and your commissioners and let them know you expect them to be looking out for your rights no matter what Portland tries to pass. You can find them here at the bottom of the page.

As an example of just how bad the coming “background check/ universal registration” schemes can be, take a look at this notice from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. It explains how under Washington’s newly passed gun grab (I594), students at a hunter safety class won’t be allowed to pass rifles to each other!

It does state that instructors will be allowed to hand rifles to a student, but even that may not be accurate. See here for an explanation of why hunter safety instructors may not be allowed to hand guns to students.

Under I594, you won’t even be allowed to buy or hand a nail gun or flare gun to another person without police permission and an expensive background check!

Do not doubt for a moment that, based on his success in Washington, Michael Bloomberg will be spending millions to pass a similar ballot measure here and will be counting on uninformed voters and a lazy, complicit media to get it done.

All indications are that the vast majority of voters in Washington, and many, many gun owners had no idea what they were voting for in Washington. This is the great danger of ballot measures. Too many voters make a decision based only on the lies they are told on TV.  We simply cannot allow that to happen in Oregon.  Contact your sheriff and county commissioners and tell them to say no to any anti-gun bill or ballot measure. 

12.04.14

Your tireless efforts have paid off one more time. The Administrative Services of the Corvallis City Council have decided not to proceed with a senseless and counterproductive ban on loaded carry of firearms.

Make no mistake, it was your efforts that turned the tide, but while the City Council of Corvallis recognized the meaninglessness of the propose ordinance, there are plenty of other fronts where the nanny state busybodies are hard at work.

Their latest target locally is Fred Meyer stores.  As in Corvallis, there is no actual issue. Fred Meyer is hardly a hotbed of open carry activity, this is simply one more way to attempt to stigmatize gun owners.  The goal is not to stop something that isn’t even happening, it’s to reinforce the idea that simple ownership of firearms is evil.

Ironically of course, many Fred Meyer stores now actually sell guns, and Fred Meyer contributes to our Foundation.

While this is an important victory, it’s just a down payment on the battles we will face state wide in February. Thanks for all your hard work and get ready to fight and win the next one.

12.02.14
Tomorrow, December 3, the Corvallis City Council Administrative Services Committee will be, once again, discussing a ban on loaded firearms.

Ceasefire Oregon is pushing hard for a ban telling their members to contact the committee with a demand  that they “prohibit openly carried guns.”  In the same email they claim “that people who openly carry are not required to have any firearm training and do not even have to pass a background check to purchase a weapon let alone carry a loaded gun in public.”

As usual, Ceasefire is hoping by repeating the same lies often enough they can convince the committee to enact more restrictions on your rights.

The fact is, regardless of what the nanny-staters at CFO demand, the city has zero authority to ban openly carried guns in Corvallis. And, of course, those who carry firearms openly are every bit as subject to background checks as anyone else. But the truth has never been an obstacle for the girls at CFO.

Please take one more moment to remind the members of the committee that anything they do will only be symbolic.  They cannot ban “open” carry and if they ban “loaded” carry the ban does not apply to CHL holders and cannot be enforced against those without CHL’s unless they are in the process of committing a crime.  The Corvallis City Attorney and the Chief of Police have repeatedly reminded the council of this reality.

The meeting will be at 3:30 at the Madison Ave. Meeting Room. Council members serving on the Administrative Services Committee are Hal Brauner (Ward 9), Joel Hirsch (Ward 6), and Biff Traber (Ward 8).

You can help us put the brakes on this stupidity and get a tax credit. But to get the credit for 2014 you must act before the end of this month. Please see this link for the details.

11.25.14

The Administrative Services Committee of the Corvallis City Council has scheduled “Discussion/Possible Action” on restrictions on “open carry” in the City. That meeting will be on Dec. 3 at 3:30 PM in the Madison Ave. Meeting room, 500 SW Madison Ave. Corvallis.

It’s important to keep in mind that the City actually has very limited abilities to restrict open carry at all. They are limited to restricting loaded carry and those restrictions could only apply to persons without concealed handgun licenses. Any rule or ordinance that restricted “loaded” carry could be become an enforcement nightmare since the simple act of carrying a gun is not a crime, and outside of “public buildings” would give police no justification to stop a person and determine if the gun was loaded.

So any restriction will be purely theater to appease a small group of people with irrational fears.

Council members serving on the Administrative Services Committee are Hal Brauner (Ward 9) , Joel Hirsch (Ward 6), and Biff Traber.

Please take a moment to contact them and remind them that any restrictions on loaded, open carry would serve no purpose and do little more than create headaches for local police all to quiet a tiny number of misguided and fearful malcontents.

Councilman Hirsch has a history of  acerbic and rude responses to voters. Keep that in mind when contacting him.

11.24.14

On a TV show aired on Sunday November 23rd, Senator Floyd Prozanski began what will no doubt be his usual lengthy string of lies. Get used to it, it’s what he does best.

The issue, of course, is the upcoming tsunami of anti-civil rights bills that Prozanski and other Democrats plan to introduce in the February legislative session.

First on Floyd’s list, mandatory universal gun registration and police permission to lend, give, or sell a firearm to a friend or family member.  Floyd would also like to be able to have your guns taken away based on any unproven accusation about your “mental health.”

(Floyd got this idea from a bill passed in California that allows anyone who has a grudge against you to tell the state you are mentally ill. When that happens, you are guilty until proven innocent, and the state takes your guns. Welcome to Prozanski’s gulag.)

In the course of the show, which Prozanski  did with Senator Jeff Kruse, he regurgitated all his usual hogwash.

He talked about how the current background check system was a great success.

He said the State Police can’t inform local police when a prohibited person is trying to buy a gun.

He said you could buy a gun on the internet without a background check.

As usual, all lies.

But we did notice he has modified his usual line of crap. Now he makes sure to say that all his efforts to attack gun rights are intended to prevent bad guys from getting “easy” access to guns.

The reason for this new modifier is because Floyd, and all his sycophants, know nothing prevents criminals from getting guns.  And his new attacks on our rights won’t either. So since nothing he does keeps guns from bad folks, why not say  ” hey, we made it inconvenient!” And of course, it doesn’t even do that. But it sure prevents good people from getting guns.

In the coming months, Prozanski and his well funded toadies will continue to lie about everything. The networks and newspapers will sit back and enable the lies. Count on it.

That’s why it is going to be entirely up to you and I to keep getting the truth on the record. It won’t be easy, and it will be infuriating. But we must do it.

11.13.14

Oregon’s first anti-gun ballot measure has been filed.

This bizarre measure called the “Oregon State Integrated Concealed Handgun Carry Act” has been filed by “Ifeanyichukwu Diru” who you may (or may not) recall, actually ran for Governor.

The measure calls for handgun licenses to be limited to one year and all applicants must “submit a mental health report from their physicians as part of conditions to qualify to hold a concealed handgun permit” (sic)

Of course, there is more.

We fully expected the lunatic anti-gun fringe to pull out all the stops thanks to their gains in the legislature and the reelection of Kitzhaber, so this ballot measure should not be a surprise, but it is just a down payment on what’s coming down the road. 

Remember, no matter what the freedom haters in the population centers dream up, most counties in Oregon are pro-gun. If their sheriffs and county commissioners refuse to support this kind of lunacy, it’s going to be up to a tiny number of State Police to try to enforce this kind of nonsense.  Where do your sheriffs and commissioners stand?

 Complete info on the ballot measure here.