Anti-Gunners Already Trying to Modify Oregon’s Measure 114

Though the Oregon State Supreme Court recently upheld the gun control law that was narrowly approved by less than 51% of voters in 2022, Measure 114 permit-to-purchase requirement and other provisions have yet to take effect. Under a bill that’s being considered by lawmakers, the effective date for Measure 114’s enforcement could be extended into 2026, but only to put even more restrictive measures in place than what was contained in the initial referendum. 

HB 3075 would, among other things, more than double the cost of the permit-to-purchase a handgun. Under Measure 114, would-be gun owners would have to fork over $65 to apply for the permit, but under the House bill that fee would skyrocket to $150, with a $110 renewal fee. But that’s just the first of several changes to the measure. 

It clarifies that a firearms instructor approved by law enforcement could provide safety training to those seeking a gun permit and increases the turn-around time from 30 to 60 days for granting a permit.

It would ban the sale or purchase of magazines holding more than 10 rounds, except for use by military or law enforcement officers. The ban would become effective on the date the bill is signed into law, if approved, and if no further court challenge is pending.

Gun dealers and manufacturers would still have a 180-day grace period to get rid of their inventory of magazines that hold 10 or more rounds from the date the measure takes effect.

Private owners would have to prove they possessed the large-capacity magazines or acquired them through an inheritance prior to the original Dec. 8, 2022, date that Measure 114 was intended to take effect.

If the bill passes, it would require any legal challenges to be filed in Marion County Circuit Court in Salem, the seat of state government.

If HB 3075-1 does pass, the changes that it contains are enough to launch an entirely new legal challenge on Second Amendment grounds. A potential 60-day waiting period alone would be grounds for a lawsuit, but the provision that would turn anyone who lawfully purchased a “large capacity” magazine over past two years into criminals simply for maintaining possession of those items is not just an attack on our Second Amendment rights, but arguably a blatant violation of the Constitution’s Takings Clause

Dozens of supporters and opponents of HB 3075-1 showed up to testify at hearing on the bill held on Monday, with backers predicting scores of lives saved and feelings of safety. 

Daniel Webster, a health policy professor and research scholar at John Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said gun purchase licensing laws such as the one before lawmakers “reduces virtually all forms of gun violence.”

The center estimates it would lead to over 1,000 lives saved in Oregon over a decade, he said.

Talia Wexler, a college sophomore home for spring break, and Brady C. Roland, Portland State University student body president, spoke in support of the bill.

“This bill will allow us to feel safer going to sporting events, theaters, concerts and grocery stores,” said Talia Wexler, the daughter of the Oregon Moms Demand Action leader who is active in Students Demand Action. “The next generation of voters has your back and will remember you for taking brave steps to make sure we can live bright futures. Don’t let us down.”

To put Webster’s prediction into perspective, there were 176 “willful murders’ across the entire state of Oregon in 2023. The Bloomberg-funded outfit that pays Webster’s paychecks claims that the homicide rate would be cut by more than 50% just by adopting a permit-to-purchase statute, which is absolutely nutty, especially considering that a report on “firearm purchaser laws” produced by the same center claims that these laws reduce homicides by 11% in urban counties.

With Wexler’s comments, it would be easy to characterize HB 3075-1 as a “feel good” measure, but the truth is that no one should feel good about forcing folks to pay through the nose to exercise an enumerated right or to twiddle their thumbs for two months while their local sheriff prepares their Second Amendment permission slip. Criminals will ignore all of these edicts and continue to acquire guns through theft and the illicit market. It will be the law-abiding residents of Oregon who’ll be the ones impacted by this bill and Measure 114, but that seems to be more of a feature than a bug for the lawmakers and activists pushing for the changes.