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04.27.09 SB 603 PASSED BY COMMITTEE |
A
bill
requested by OFF and pushed for by OFF supporters passed out
of the Senate Judiciary Committee today.
The bill was intended to define the term "not readily accessible"
for the purpose of having a handgun in your car.
Current law allows a person (without a concealed handgun license)
to have a loaded handgun in his car under two circumstances:
A) The handgun must either be carried openly, or
B) it must be "not readily accessible."
(Keep in mind, as a result of a recent court decision, non-licensees
can be further restricted if they are in a location like Portland
or Oregon City that has prohibitions against open carry.)
The problem with existing law, as you know, is that the statute
does not define what "not readily accessible" means.
For example, where would "not readily accessible"
be in a Mini Cooper, a pickup truck, or a "smart car"
which has no location not within reach of the passengers?
Because the law left gun owners at the mercy of any court that
wanted to create their own definition, we requested that a firm
and understandable definition be written into the law.
Because of your activism, we not only have a definition, but
the bill also contains corrections in Oregon law that we have
been seeking and you have been demanding.
As passed out of committee, not only does SB 603 provide a clear
definition of the term "readily accessible" it also
corrects Oregon law in two important areas that were clearly
legislative mistakes. And none of this would have
happened without your continued efforts. (If you
are looking up the bill online, please keep in mind that the
original posted on the legislative website is NOT the bill passed
out of committee today.)
Current Oregon law says that a person with a felony conviction
can ask the court to have his rights restored to BUY a firearm,
but he may not OWN it! SB 603 corrects this error.
Current Oregon law says that a person with only one felony conviction,
not involving a homicide or a weapons charge, automatically
gets his firearms rights restored after 15 years. But ONLY
to be free from being charged with "felon in possession."
That person still faces the possibility of being charged with
MISDEMEANOR unlawful possession. SB 603 corrects this error
as well.
The bill now goes to the
full Senate. We suggest you contact your own State
Senator and urge him to vote in favor of SB 603. The bill
will then have to go to the House Judiciary Committee
and the full House for a vote. We will keep you appraised of
its progress. If you need to find your State Senator, please
use this link.
Your STATE senator will be
the 4th name listed.
That is the good news.
The bad news is that HB
2463 a bill which would have recognized other states' concealed
handgun licenses has been twisted by some committee Democrats
into an unrecognizable shadow of its original intent.
As modified by members of the committee, the bill would be useless
window dressing. We believe the bill is almost certainly dead,
guaranteeing that we will NOT have the benefits of more states
recognizing our CHL's that we would have under the original
bill. We believe the Chairman of the Committee, Representative
Jeff Barker made a good faith effort to move this bill, but
was thwarted by other members of his party.
In the unlikely event that this bill moves, it will almost certainly
serve no purpose for gun owners.
In addition, House
Bill 2853 is scheduled for another "work session"
tomorrow. This bill has also been altered so dramatically that
the original language is completely gone. As amended, this horrible
bill would force Oregon to comply with the NRA-sponsored federal
bill HR
2640, that requires that the medical mental health
records of thousands of Oregonians be turned over to the anti-gun,
Obama administration run, "National Instant Check System"
a vast federal database that regularly denies gun purchases
to people with no disqualifying incidents. This is a very dangerous
bill. We think this will be moved to another committee
and if it is we will ask that you contact that committee and
urge that it be voted down.
Stay tuned. We'll keep you informed.
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© 2000 - 2010, Oregon Firearms Federation. All Rights Reserved.
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