By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Legislation which would have made the provisions of Measure 114 even worse by jacking up the cost of gun permits and extended the waiting period has been essentially gutted by the Oregon State Senate Rules Committee.
The Oregon Firearms Federation notes in an alert, House Bill 1145 was “gutted and stuffed” with the “dash 9” amendment.
“The law is still garbage,” wrote OFF’s Kevin Starrett, “but this is far less damaging than the original bill. It now goes to the full Senate floor, where if it passes, it will need to go back to the House for concurrence with these changes.”
According to the Portland Oregonian, the Rules committee passed a “slimmed-down version” of HB 1145 on a 4-1 vote. Under the original language, had the measure been adopted, it would have raised the fee for gun permits from $65 to $150, and allowed a waiting period to extend from 30 days to 60 days. The measure also limits magazine capacity to 10 cartridges, and requires a background check to get a permit to purchase. Beaver State residents would have had to wait up to two full months in order to exercise their right to keep and bear arms under both the state and federal constitutions.
Speaking of waiting, Oregon gun owners are still waiting for a ruling from the state Supreme Court on the constitutionality of Measure 114, passed narrowly by voters in November 2022 and immediately challenged in state and federal court on constitutional issues by virtually every gun rights organization in the country. As a result, the ultra-restrictive gun control measure has never yet taken effect, but Democrats in Salem have been feverishly trying to work around this roadblock by passing other bills.
The only thing which seems to have survived the rewrite is that the date of implementation has been pushed back to Jan. 1, 2028.
The fight may not be over, as OFF notes, “Democrats may still want to have the 2022 implementation date so they can entrap as many Oregonians as possible for their purchase of magazines.”
