Oregon House Passes One Bad Bill, Kills Another

The National Firearms Act is currently facing the first real threat to its existence since it was passed in 1934. The measure restricted all kinds of things, including short-barreled long guns and suppressors. Neither are what some like to claim, but they’re still going to make the claims in hopes of keeping them from becoming legal.

Machine guns, however, are restricted at the federal level, and that includes things like full-auto switches. In fact, a lot of states are enacting laws that prohibit them. Alabama, even, which is a pretty pro-gun state.

And in Oregon, that’s just what the House also did, even as they also did something that didn’t suck.

The Oregon House on June 25 approved a bill banning rapid-fire activators and allowing local governments to prohibit concealed gun carriers inside certain public buildings, and killed a proposal that would have regulated gun dealers.

“This bill protects Oregonians from dangerous rapid-fire devices and protects our democracy by allowing local firearm control in council and commission chambers, control like we have here in this Capitol,” said Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, D-Corvallis, who carried the bill in the House.

The bill passed along party lines, 33-10. Fifteen representatives were excused for the session; two were marked as unexcused.

Two House Republicans suggested on social media posts that lawmakers walk out and deny a quorum to protest the two bills.

Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Stayton, confirmed in a text that he would not be on the floor for a vote on either bill. Rep. Dwayne Yunker, R-Grants Pass, said on X that Republicans had “a choice on the House floor: stand up for Oregonians and protect the Second Amendment, or help Democrats pass gun bills that punish law-abiding citizens.”

“I was elected to represent the values of my constituents: to defend their rights and protect their wallets,” Yunker said in a statement. “I refused to participate in today’s vote because I did not come to Salem to provide political cover for a party that is actively working to undermine both.”

Yunker was excused for the session. In a statement, Rep. Anna Scharf, R-Amity, said she “left the building in protest” of the gun control measures.

The fact that the bill also allows local government to enact gun-free zones in government buildings also sucks, mind you, and will probably have a bigger impact on more people than banning rabid-fire devices, which are already illegal, but there’s at least reason to believe such a measure is constitutional as the Bruen decision did note that gun-free zones can be legal within the Second Amendment framework.

Killing state licensing for gun dealers is a significant win, too, because that measure wasn’t anything but an excuse for the state to get involved in the process and make life harder for law-abiding gun dealers.

The measure on the rapid-fire devices, though, is something that bothers me a great deal.

While it looks like this doesn’t do anything with bump stocks are forced-reset triggers, which are lawful at the federal level once again, we all know that’s coming.

Plus, as the NFA is potentially being gutted for the very first time, we also need to consider what the ramifications of a law like this will be long-term.

For now, it’ll just let state and local authorities prosecute people for having these devices, rather than hoping federal law enforcement will do so. That’s not the end of the world. It’s still gun control, but it’s not really moving the needle on gun rights either way since it’s just a replication of a federal statute.

But what happens should the NFA be repealed in its entirety?

In these states, like Oregon and Alabama, these now lawful devices would still be illegal, and that’s where I have a major issue.

Unfortunately, that’s not a convincing argument to anyone who might be inclined to support a law like this.