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 08.03.11
Governor Signs Gun Bill |
Governor
Kitzhaber has signed HB
2792 into law. That's good news and bad news.
2792 clarifies lawful carry of firearms on motorcycles, snowmobiles
and all terrain vehicles. The "short " version follows.
As always, concealed handgun license holders can carry handguns
any way they choose while on motorcycles. This was always so.
However,until this bill became law, there was no practical way
for a person to legally transport a handgun on a motorcycle
if they did not have a CHL. Now those without licenses can carry
handguns on motorcycles if they are in a locked container or
if they are equipped with a trigger lock. This is a positive
development.
In the past, it was unlawful to have a loaded firearm
on a snowmobile or ATV. This applied to everyone, even those
with concealed handgun licenses. One of the main problems with
this law was that the term "loaded" was not defined.
Could you have a magazine inserted in an auto loader if there
was no round in the chamber? The law did not say. Now, with
the enactment of 2792, this too has been clarified. For the
purposes of carry on snowmobiles and ATV's "unloaded"
means the following:
If the firearm is a revolver, that there is no live
cartridge in the chamber that is aligned with the hammer of
the revolver;
If the firearm is a muzzle-loading firearm, that the firearm
is not capped or primed;
or If the firearm is other than a revolver or a muzzle-loading
firearm, that there is no live cartridge in the chamber.
Please note, the above restriction no longer applies to CHL
holders, who may carry fully loaded firearms on snowmobiles
or ATV's . You may also carry concealed on snowmobiles and ATV's
without a CHL if you follow the same guidelines as
are applied to motorcycles, meaning the gun must be in a locked
container or be equipped with a trigger lock. Without a CHL
you may carry the gun openly in the newly defined "unloaded"
condition anyplace there are not local restrictions. The rules
for motorcycles, snowmobiles and ATV's are now much like the
rules for cars and trucks
While these are good changes and ones we have been working on
for some time, 2792 also had bad components. As you may know,
in 2009 OFF crafted legislation to clean up Oregon's laws on
gun rights restoration for persons with past felony convictions.
SB 603 corrected an error in Oregon law that allowed a person
with a felony conviction to petition the court have his rights
restored to buy a gun, but because of an anomaly in the law,
that person could still not own it!. SB 603 fixed that
and worked well for the short time it was in effect. Now, HB
2792 greatly restricts who may apply for rights restoration.
Remember, this was not a law that gave anyone their rights back,
it only allowed them to ask for their rights back.
Some applied and were approved and some were not. The new system
worked. Now, no one convicted of a "person felony"
can apply for rights restoration. While many "person felonies"
are serious crimes, some hardly seem like reason to disallow
a person from ever seeking to have their rights restored. You
can see a list of "person felonies" here.
This link is no longer active. You can
see the list of person felonies in ORS 137.700 |
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