GUN BAN MEASURE APPROVED FOR BALLOT. COMMENTS NEEDED.
IP 17, the gun and magazine ban initiative, has been approved for the ballot.
We need you to share your input on the measures’s contents.
The Secretary of State has formed a committee to write an “explanatory statement” for the voter’s guide, supposedly to describe what the ballot measure does.
We need your comments to go to that committee. The committee is scheduled to meet to accept public comments on August 3rd, but you may email comments now to elections.SOS@sos.oregon.gov
It is essential that the committee hear from gun owners in Oregon. We know the Secretary of State has stacked the deck so it is critical that voters actually know what they will be voting on.
Do NOT send comments opposing the measure. That will not matter. What we need are emails pointing out what is actually IN the measure so we can at least try to get an honest assessment of what the measure does. Just pointing out that the measure is a bad idea does not help.
Please contact the committee and point out any or all of the following facts about the measure and ask that they be included in any statement published in the voter’s guide.
The measure outright bans the new purchase of most sporting shotguns because of the magazine capacity limit. Most shotguns which have tubular magazines can hold more than 10 “mini shells” making them illegal to purchase. This will have a profound effect on youth trap and skeet shooting in Oregon.
The measure requires live fire training before a person can apply for a permit to purchase a firearm. There are virtually no facilities that will be available for this training. For first time gun buyers this could well require that you have a gun before you can get a permit to buy a gun.
There are no exceptions for the permit to purchase requirement for police of Federally licensed gun dealers.
The “permitting agent” can demand “any additional information” to issue the permit opening up endless opportunities for abuses.
The measure only allows those approved by police to provide the required “training” to apply for a permit. Police in Oregon are underfunded and understaffed. There is no plan in place to actually provide any training and virtually no rural police have the facilities or manpower to provide classes. Police in urban areas are already not responding to most violent crimes.
The Oregon State Sheriff’s Association has estimated that if a person somehow could complete the required training, the permitting process would cost sheriffs almost $40,000,000.00 annually. There is nothing in the measure that provides any funding and the fees included would not come close to covering the costs. There is no estimate on the cost or impact on small local police departments.
While the measure caps the cost for a permit, there are no caps on the costs for the required training, which is unlikely to be available anyway. This will mostly affect low income communities.
The measure requires that the required class (taught only by “law enforcement approved” trainers) include training on state and federal law, transfers and storage, and the “impact of suicide on the country as a whole.” There is no indication of who would be qualified to instruct on these issues or how they become approved.
The measure requires that a sheriff or local police department issue a permit within 30 days after a background check has been completed by the State Police. But there is NO limit on how long the State Police can take to complete the background check and NO penalties if they do not complete it. There are no estimates of the cost of these checks to the State Police.
The measure requires a public list of persons who attempt to purchase firearms. Victims of domestic violence will be at risk for all their private information being made public along with their efforts to purchase a firearm for self defense.
The measure creates a whole new category of victimless crimes at time when the police are grossly underfunded and real criminals are being released onto our streets.
The measure requires a permit from local police (which may be impossible to get) just to apply for permission from the Oregon State Police simply to buy a firearm. But it also removes the one safeguard that protects gun buyers if the State Police do not complete their background check.
State and Federal law allow the transfer of a firearm if the state police don’t complete a background check in 3 business days. This measure removes that safeguard. So a single mom with threats against her and her children could literally wait forever to get permission to get a home defense firearm.
You can add any other issues you find in the measure as points the committee needs to address.
As we said, the deck is stacked. The proponents got to pick their committee members, but the opponents were picked by the anti-gun Secretary of State.
No pro-gun organizations will be represented. A fifth member will be chosen from among 3 candidates picked by the other committee members. The list of potential fifth members was provided by, once again, the anti-gun Secretary of State and reads like a who’s who of liberal activists.
We are NOT expecting fairness in this proceeding but we must make sure the committee hears from us. Please send your comments today to elections.SOS@sos.oregon.gov . Include a reference to IP 17 in the subject line.
You can see a video of the committee’s first meeting here: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/mediaplayer?clientID=4879615486&eventID=2022071016
Links for future committee meeting videos can be found here: https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/citizen_engagement/Pages/NonLegislative_Video.aspx
They appear under “Live and Upcoming News Conferences and Non Legislative Events.”