Oregon: No. 114 and Counting

“Violent crime is the story of Portland’s summer,” wrote Lucas Manfield on July 16, 2022. Lucas reports on “cops, courts and crime” for the Willamette Week in Willamette, Oregon. And yet Oregon’s politicians are doing everything in their power to make a difficult social situation worse. Ballot Measure 114, the “Reduction of Gun Violence Act,” is likely to become law in Oregon. This act would:

A. Ban the manufacture, importation, possession, use, purchase, sale or otherwise transferring of magazines — both fixed and detachable — capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Citizens who currently own such magazines will find that they are legal for use only on private property, at a shooting range or while hunting. How this will ultimately impact shotgun owners remains to be seen; many shotguns can be outfitted with a magazine extender and thus hold additional standard shells (and quite a few more mini-shells).

B. Require an individual to have a permit to purchase or transfer a firearm — to a gun store or a brother-in-law — only after successfully completing an NICS check. To obtain a permit, a citizen would pay a fee (estimated at $65 to apply and up to $50 to renew) and attend both classroom and live-fire training offered by instructors certified by the Oregon State Police. The Oregon State Police could deny a permit to any applicant “believed to be a danger to himself [or herself] or to others” or an applicant who is prohibited from possessing a firearm (such as a convicted felon). The police could take up to a month to issue or deny a permit to an applicant, and the permit would need to be renewed every five years.

C. Create an official registry (an “electronic searchable database”) of gun owners. This registry would include a gun owner’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, physical description, fingerprints, picture and any additional information deemed necessary by law enforcement. Law enforcement would most likely want a firearm’s make, model and serial number. And this data would be published annually.

If passed, any violation of the subsequent law would become a Class A misdemeanor.

NRAILA.org, Ballotpedia.org, OPB.org, WWeek.com

Quotable: 1984 — Here at Last

On “Gun Control” — June 2, 2022: U.S. President Joe R. Biden Jr. read a statement about “gun violence” in America. His statement can be found in full online and clearly outlines the current anti-Second Amendment crusade.

“The Second Amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute … not unlimited. It never has been.”

“We need to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And if we can’t ban assault weapons, then we should raise the age to purchase them from 18 to 21. Strengthen background checks. Enact safe-storage laws and red-flag laws. Repeal the immunity that protects gun manufacturers from liability.”

And in the same speech:

“This is not about taking away anyone’s guns … we believe we should be treating responsible gun owners as an example of how every gun owner should behave. I respect the culture and the traditions and the concerns of lawful gun owners.”

On “Domestic Terrorism” — June 15, 2021: Biden spoke about his “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism,” which, without question, means any citizen who disagrees with the opinion that guns are bad and concealed (or open) carry is worse.

“On my first day in office, I directed my national security team to confront the rise in domestic terrorism with the necessary resources and resolve,” he stated.

His National Strategy — 30+ pages of bureaucratic babble — can be read online. The document begins with the Reconstruction era following the U.S. Civil War and continues with the Ku Klux Klan.

Here are Biden’s “Strategic Pillars” and their associated “goals:”

  • Understand and share domestic-terrorism-related information.
  • Enhance domestic-terrorism-related research and analysis.
  • Improve information-sharing across all levels [of government].
  • Illuminate transnational aspects of domestic terrorism.
  • Prevent “domestic-terrorism recruitment” and “mobilization to violence.”
  • Strengthen domestic-terrorism-prevention resources and services.
  • Address “online terrorist recruitment” and “mobilization to violence.”
  • Disrupt and deter “domestic-terrorism activity.”
  • Enable appropriate enhanced investigation and prosecution of such crimes.
  • Assess potential legislative reforms.
  • Ensure that screening and vetting processes consider the full range of threats.
  • Confront “long-term contributors to domestic terrorism.”

WhiteHouse.gov

California: Good News, Bad News

So the good news is that the Legislature of California did not pass Assembly Bill 1227 (Excise Tax) or Senate Bill 918 (Concealed Carry Reform). Sponsored by Democrat Marc Levine, AB 1227 would have immediately added an additional 10 percent state tax on handgun sales and an 11 percent tax on long gun sales statewide. Sponsored by Democrat Anthony Portantino, SB 918 would have expanded “gun-free zones,” required signage for businesses where you are permitted to carry and doubled the required training for a concealed carry permit.

The bad news is that Assembly Bill 2870 did garner sufficient votes.

AB 2870 expands California’s “gun violence restraining orders” (ERPOs, or red flags) to allow for additional “reporters” — roommates, dating partners and additional family members out to the “fourth level of consanguinity” and affinity.

For those who are not students of genealogy, the “fourth level” consists of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, one’s spouse and children, brothers and sisters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews, aunts and uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles, and first cousins by virtue of a blood relationship or marriage (Did we miss anyone?). Thus, practically anyone who knows you can legally petition to have your firearms seized.

NRAILA.org, LawInsider.com

Canada: Rush to Buy…

Earlier this year, writes the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government introduced Bill C-21, proposing a permanent freeze on the sale, transfer and import of handguns in and into Canada. The bill remains in the initial legislative stage and did not pass prior to Parliament’s summer recess.

A handgun ban follows only two years after Trudeau’s imposition of an “assault weapons” ban. It is important to note that this 2020 ban has not been fully implemented, the “grandfather clause” having been extended to October 2023 to “allow time to ensure that officials can finalize and fully implement a robust mandatory buyback program and allow firearms owners and businesses to take all reasonable steps to come into compliance with the law.”

Nevertheless, Marco Mendicino, the Liberal government’s Public Safety Minister, has moved right forward in the interest of “public safety.” He announced forthcoming “regulations [to] help stop the growth of personally owned handguns in Canada … expected to come into force in Fall 2022,” apparently regardless of whether or not the people’s representatives enact Bill C-21 into law.

Thus waiting on passage of C-21, Trudeau’s government has imposed a “temporary ban” on the import of restricted handguns effective Aug. 19, 2022. This move indirectly achieves the goals of Bill C-21. Foreign Minister Melanie Joly has said that the import ban will remain in place until a national freeze on handguns comes into force.

According to Reuters.com, “With the handgun ban temporarily stalled in Parliament, Canadians rushed to buy guns after the freeze was announced. The government now wants to prevent gun sellers from restocking their inventory with this import ban.”

Few guns of any type are manufactured in Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police are armed with the double-action S&W 5946; Canadian Forces Military Police use the compact SIG Sauer P225; Canada’s Border Services Agency uses the short-recoil, rotating-barrel Beretta Px4 Storm; and the Canadian Correctional Service uses the H&K P2000, originally designed for German Federal Customs Service (Bundeszollverwaltung).

NRAILA.org, PM.GC.ca, Reuters.com

California: Bureaucrats Speak

Those who believe the promises of politicians or government bureaucrats should be reminded of the 2022 release of private information by the California Department of Justice.

Ben Christopher, writing for CalMatters.org, notes: “Over the last decade, Orange County issued 65,171 permits to carry a concealed handgun, and both Fresno and Sacramento Counties issued more than 45,000. San Francisco issued 11. That’s according to data published online Monday by the California Department of Justice but which has since been removed after reporters discovered that the open database included the names, home addresses and other personal information of more than 200,000 concealed carry permit holders in the state.”

The private information of California citizens was released on the publicly accessible “Firearms Dashboard Portal.”

According to the Associated Press, Rob Bonta, the Democrat who heads the Department of Justice and is — incidentally — running for reelection, said he was “deeply disturbed and angered” by the failure to protect the information his department is entrusted to keep. He ordered an independent investigation and promised to fix any problems.

The California Attorney General’s website now says, “Based on the DOJ’s current investigation, the incident appears to have exposed the personal information of individuals who were granted or denied a CCW permit between 2012-2021.” If you are a citizen of California and believe your private information has been compromised, the Attorney General’s office has set up a “call center” that operates from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday: (833) 909-4419. As of this date, no results of this investigation have been released except to suggest that it was a “software issue.”

CalMatters.org, APNews.com