06.20.2023
THERE’S STILL TIME
In 1999, Oregon Firearms was a brand new, tiny, gun rights organization.
Our no compromise stand was derided by the media, the legislators, and the institutional gun lobby.
Kevin Mannix, (who is unfortunately back in the legislature) was pushing the worst anti-gun bill Oregon had seen until then. (Some things never change, this session Mannix again joined the Democrats to vote for more gun control.)
Mannix’s bill, HB2535, outlawed most private gun sales. And Mannix had pulled out all the stops to pass it.
A previous version had already passed in the Senate. Mannix made it worse and carried it on the House floor. But then it had to go back to the Senate for concurrence.
Everyone agreed its passage was a sure thing. “Oregon Gun Owners” helped write and was pushing it. The NRA went into hiding and refused to acknowledge that it even existed. The media, the lobby, and many legislators told us we were wasting our time fighting it.
But we ignored them. Day after day the bill was postponed on the Senate Floor, as OFF members continued to flood the Senate with phone calls and emails. (And many people didn’t even have emails then.)
Finally the vote could be delayed no longer. Senator Ginny Burdick rose on the Senate floor to declare that “we rolled the gun lobby.” Then, after hours of debate, the bill failed by one vote.
The Senate chambers erupted. Kate Brown, then a Senator, immediately tried to have the vote reconsidered. The media and the “lobby” were stunned.
HB2535 was dead.
Tomorrow, the Oregon House will be be voting on HB 2005, Oregon’s latest gun grab. Given how the Oregon Senate leader folded up and allowed the bill to pass on the Senate floor, and given the House Republican leader’s praise for that sell out, most consider it a sure thing that the House will agree to the final bill and repass it.
But it’s not over till it’s over. We know some House Republicans are not happy with the Senate sell out. And tomorrow is also the vote on HB 2002, an extreme and very contentious bill.
The House Republicans, unlike their colleagues in the Senate, have shown up day after day to help the Democrats ram through their agenda. Many Senators have paid a high price for their courage and refusal to join their “leader” in selling out.
But because we are in the closing days of the session, House Republicans risk NOTHING by denying quorum and killing this dangerous and clearly unconstitutional bill.
Let’s give it one more shot. Please contact House Leader Vikki Iverson and Deputy House Leader Shelly Boshart Davis and tell them to walk away tomorrow and stop the madness. Quite simply, that is their job.
Vikki Breese Iverson
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/breese-iverson
Shelly Boshart Davis