Today, Senate Bill 941, legislation which seeks to expand background checks to private transfers, passed the House Rules Committee and will now head to the floor for a final vote by the full House of Representatives.  This bill was voted out of Committee today in a work session after receiving more than seven hours of both invited and public testimony on Wednesday.

Opposition testimony was led by NRA, Oregon Firearms Federation, Sheriff Tim Svenson from Yamhill County, and Sheriff John Hamlin from Douglas County.  Following in opposition were numerous county commissioners including Chris Perry of Wheeler County, Paul Castillia of Wallowa County, Kevin Cameron of Marion County, Stan Primovich of Yamhill County, Chris Boice and Tim Freeman of Douglas County, and Tootie Smith of Clackamas County.  Several gun stores and the Oregon Hunters Association also joined with opposition testimony at the hearing.

https://www.nraila.org/

Senate Bill 941, legislation which seeks to expand background checks to private transfers, is scheduled to be heard in the House Rules Committee on Wednesday, April 22, at 1:00 p.m., in Hearing Room 50.  Unlike previous hearings on SB 941, the House Rules Committee is scheduled to hear two hours of invited testimony followed by public testimony from 3:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.  Please consider attending Wednesday’s hearing to provide testimony in opposition to this egregious bill.  Testimony will be limited to two minutes per person so please keep it concise.  Further details can be found here.  If you are unable to attend in person, the Committee meeting record will remain open and written testimony can be submitted to hrules.exhibits@state.or.us until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 23.  Please call and email members of the House Rules Committee as well as your state Representative and urge them to OPPOSE Senate Bill 941.  Also, please forward this email to friends, family and fellow Second Amendment supporters in Oregon and encourage them to do the same.

http://www.oregonfirearms.org

With no surprises, the Oregon Senate today passed SB 941, the universal gun owner registration bill.

Republicans made numerous motions to act on bills that would actually have a positive effect on the lives of Oregonians.

These included bills that would provide funds for improving mental health treatment, protecting the victims of sex trafficking. and aiding law enforcement in counties crushed by regulations that prevent them from generating revenue from natural resources.  Every Senate Democrats voted against every single motion.

Senator Diane Rosenbaum used a procedural move to shut the Republicans down and force immediate consideration of the bill.

Senator Kim Thatcher
Senate District 13

https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/thatcher/


Salem, OR - The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a public hearing and work session on Senate Bill 945 on April 16th. The legislation will create the crime of endangering a minor by allowing access to a firearm. The crime is punishable by a Class A Misdemeanor and individuals convicted under the law will be prohibited from owning a firearm. 

Under the bill, an individual will be liable if he or she meets three criteria: the individual possess an operable firearm on premises under his or her control, the firearm is in a location where the person knows or reasonably should know that a minor could gain access to the firearm, and a minor obtains the firearm without permission from the person or the minor's parents or legal guardians. Individuals are not liable if they keep the firearm in a locked container or use a gun lock. 

The public hearing and work session are scheduled for Thursday, April 16th at 8:00am in Hearing Room 343. You can find more information on the bill here. If you would like to submit testimony please email it here.

http://www.oregonfirearms.org

As you know, action on the gun owner registration bill, SB 941, has been postponed  until Monday.

The reason for this was an amendment that was proposed by Senator Kim Thatcher.

The amendment would have required that felons be identified on their driver's license as prohibited persons and as such could not conduct a firearms transfer. From the responses we have received it appears most thought this was a good idea. (As we did.)

However, after more careful examination, Senator Thatcher is now proposing what we think is a better idea.

First, let's understand what the problems were with the original proposal. 

http://www.oregonfirearms.org

Action on the gun owner registration bill, SB 941, was postponed today until Monday.

The reason was because of an amendment that was proposed by Senator Kim Thatcher.

The amendment would eliminate the proposed expensive, intrusive and inaccurate background checks that would be required for private transfers, and replace them with a system whereby only prohibited persons would be identified.

Although the details would need some fine tuning, how it would work would be this:  If you are a prohibited person, your driver's license would include an indicator, just as it does now for corrective lenses or organ donors.

Non prohibited persons would have no change.  If you wanted to transfer a firearm you would only need to see the back of the recipients driver's license or state ID card. If there is no prohibitor the transfer is made with no background check, no fee, no registration and no paperwork. 

There will be no record of the transfer and no list of guns or gun owners.

Transfers at dealers would have no changes, except a dealer would have the advantage of knowing beforehand that a person was going to be denied and could save himself the time and expense of running the check.