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04.11.09 Busy Days For Gun Rights Coming |
The coming weeks will be busy ones for gun rights in Oregon.
But first, Oregon gun owners should know that both their US
Senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, cast an important vote
on April 2nd.
Wyden and Merkley both voted AGAINST
an amendment to a Senate budget bill that would have allowed
law abiding gun owners to transport firearms in their checked
bags when traveling on the perennially broke, but taxpayer funded,
Amtrak.
That's right. Wyden and Merkley voted to prevent you from legally
transporting a firearm on a train, something you can
do on an airplane.
Amtrak,
which should be considered "light rail" because it's
rarely weighed down by passengers, is chronically broke. Apparently,
both Merkley and Wyden want to keep it that way. Thankfully,
other states elected enough senators who think clearly and the
amendment passed.
MONDAY APRIL 13th.
Oral arguments in the Medford Teacher Lawsuit.
Our appeal of the court
decision denying public school employees their right to
self defense will be heard at 9am at the University of Oregon
School of Law. The address is 1515 Agate Street, Eugene Oregon.
Room 241. (Be advised, the classroom will be considered
a "courtroom" and as such it will be unlawful for
license holders to be armed in the room.) Fittingly,students
at OSU are hosting a "Second Amendment Week" starting
on this day. We have been reliably informed that the school
administration is so nervous, they have requested State Police
in riot gear. No, we are NOT making this up.
The following bills are to be dealt with in the House
Judiciary Committee. The committee meets at 1 PM in Room
357. These proceedings can be viewed live online here
or here.
Note, the video feed is on 24 hours a day, so you can check
your connection before the dates of the work sessions.
There is no audio feed until the proceedings start. Please keep
in mind that the chairman can remove any bill from the schedule
with no notice. Even if the bill is listed on online
committee schedules at the time of the meeting, the listed
bills can be bypassed.
Tuesday April 14th
Work session, House Bill
2463 which would recognize other states' handgun licenses.
Note, this bill previously passed out of this committee with
amendments that would have allowed gun owners, from states that
don't require licenses, to carry in Oregon. Democrats on the
committee had a collective fit and the bill was returned to
committee to be reconsidered. Because this bill has been delayed
extensively, we believe there may be restrictive amendments
introduced at the work session. They will most likely
not be available prior to to the work session.
Wednesday April 15th
Work session, HB
2727 to protect the privacy of concealed handgun licensees.
Members of the committee have requested far-reaching amendments
which could render this bill pointless. If they are adopted,
we would support the decision of members (who supported the
original bill) if they voted "no" on the final bill.
We are still hoping to have the bill passed with its original
protections. Some committee members might vote "no"
on any protections for CHL holders, but for the ones
who supported the original bill we have made it clear we would
understand a "no" vote on a gutted bill which would
only serve as political cover with no real benefits for gun
owners.
Thursday April 16th
Work session, HB
2991. This bill exempts CHL holders from background checks
for gun purchases. It is likely that if this bill passes, the
Feds will try to block it.
Monday April 20th
HB
2853. This is the mental health records
transfer we warned you about in a previous alert.
The bill summary says "Expands prohibition on
possessing and transferring firearm to include person found
guilty except for insanity of misdemeanor" but ten
pages of amendments have turned it into a huge data dump of
personal information to the Obama administration and the FBI.
These changes are being made to force Oregon to submit to federal
legislation that could dramatically damage the gun rights of
veterans.
Senate Judiciary Chairman, Floyd
Prozanski, has promised to hold hearings on at least two
bills in his committee to clarify or correct Oregon gun laws.
As of now, he has scheduled nothing. The deadlines for these
actions are fast approaching.
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© 2000 - 2010, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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