Currently we are monitoring over 40 firearms related bills and know that more are coming.
Quite a few of these bills are improvements over current law, some are housekeeping measures, some are well intentioned but dangerous, some are goofy and some are simply awful.
All introduced bills can be seen here. We add new legislation to this page as soon as it is introduced.
As you probably know, Kate Brown held a press conference yesterday with Bloomberg stooges to promote her personal favorite anti-gun bill SB 797.
797, like HB 2237 eliminates the safeguard that allows, but does not mandate, the transfer of a firearm after 3 business days have elapsed, if the Oregon State Police do not complete a background check.
While few dealers are willing to complete these transfers (after years of being lied to and threatened by OSP) it is still an important protection and available to dealers who know their customers and know what an awful job the State Police do on background checks.
One of the main proponents of this elimination of rights is Portland uber-leftist Jennifer Williamson. Interestingly, Williamson herself has testified that 95% of delays are not justified. Now Williamson and Brown and the rest of the hard left in the Oregon Legislature want to expand a program with a 95% failure rate. (Williamson and Kate Brown have gotten big payoffs from Mike Bloomberg. It's no secret who they are working for.)
Under SB 797, if the State Police do not complete a background check you could literally be denied a firearm's purchase forever. All the State Police have to do is...nothing.
SB 797 also requires extensive new reporting and reports. Oddly what it does not require is that the State Police actually do anything when a prohibited person attempts a transfer. And that's what they typically do now. Nothing.
In spite of laughable misreporting like this, when "prohibited" persons are identified by background checks, the rate of arrests is virtually zero. Nothing in this bill would change that. And in spite of the mandate that denials be investigated by State Police, we are now receiving reports of denied buyers not hearing from a trooper for months. Of course, a significant number of people who are denied, along with 95% of people who are delayed, are totally qualified to buy firearms.
Floyd Prozanski, the militantly anti-gun Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has stated he will be holding hearings on SB 797. We also believe Prozanski will soon be introducing legislation to severely restrict access to concealed handgun licenses along with other far reaching anti-gun bills.
In addition to the expected attacks are many positive bills including the just introduced HB 2973 which repeals the dreadful SB 941 that outlawed lending a firearm to a friend or safeguarding a firearm for a neighbor. SB 941 also outlawed the purchase of a firearm by a person protected by Oregon's "Address Confidentiality Program" an outrage that is being addressed by several bills.
It's a pathetic reflection on the leftists who run the Oregon Legislature that they feel the need to expend so much energy attacking your rights at a time when Oregon is racing off a fiscal cliff. But that's the way they roll. Still it's important to keep something in mind about this session.
Oregon is facing a fiscal crisis born out of the desire of legislators to spend money like a meth addict with a stolen credit card. The bill is coming due. While the Republicans are in the minority, they are not in a "super-minority." The only way the Democrats can get the money they continue to burn is by jacking up your taxes. They cannot do that without some Republican support. This means that, while certainly not a guarantee of success, the Republicans have the leverage to tell the ruling party that no taxes will even be considered if they push more attacks on your rights. We will count any vote in favor of new taxes a vote against gun rights no matter how a legislator votes on gun bills, unless they have killed every anti-gun bill in 2017.