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03.09.09 GUN BILLS IN COMMITTEE |
Tomorrow,
as we told you, the House Judiciary Committee will be hearing
four gun related bills.
Two of these bills, HB
2644 and HB
2991, allow persons with concealed handgun licenses to bypass
background checks when making firearms purchases.
These two bills are the same, so it's likely that they will
be consolidated into one bill.
HB 2645
requires the destruction of records obtained during background
checks for firearms.
HB
2727 prohibits the release of information about concealed
handgun licenses. All are good bills but will almost certainly
be amended.
The bills allowing CHL holders to bypass background checks will
probably meet with objections from law enforcement who will
say that gun dealers will have no way of knowing if a license
is valid, since they can be revoked, but not siezed by the sheriff.
The obvious, easy fix for this is to allow dealers (and private
sellers at gun shows) to contact the state police and inquire
only if a license is valid. No other check would be
required.
The State Police currently have the ability to provide this
information.
However, if that is done, a potential conflict arises with HB
2727, the CHL privacy bill we have been working on since before
the session began.
As currently written, HB 2727 would not allow the State
Police to tell dealers if a CHL was valid. If the bills allowing
license holders to bypass background checks are amended to allow
the State Police to simply verify whether a license was valid,
2727 will have to be amended to allow the State Police to disclose
that information to gun sellers. We are working with the bills'
sponsors to make sure all these different goals are met.
As far as HB 2645 is concerned, the State Police have pointed
out that if they are required to destroy all
records obtained during a background check, that they would
lose information they had acquired that cleared
a gun buyer. In other words, if a person was delayed
because of a question that came up during a background check,
and the investigation proved the person was qualified, then
the next time he tried to purchase a gun, the police would no
longer have the info to clear him and another delay would result.
There is an easy fix for this as well. The information on the
buyer could be retained, but the State Police would be required
to destroy the information about the firearm purchased.
While these bills will need some work, we are confident that
they can be amended to make them all work together.
Please contact the House Judiciary Committee and urge them to
craft simple, workable bills that protect gun owners' rights
and privacy. A sample message and contact info are provided
below.
______________________________________________________________
Dear Representative,
House Bills 2644, 2645, 2727 and 2991 are common sense measures
that protect gun owners' rights and privacy. Please work to
resolve the minor conflicts in these well-intentioned and long
overdue protections for Oregon's most law-abiding community.
Sincerely,
__________________________
__________________________________________________________________
House
Judiciary Contact Info.
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© 2000 - 2010, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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