Oregon Bill Would Control Private Firearms Transfers

Wednesday, 01 Apr 2015 06:28 PM

By John Blosser

An Oregon bill to control the transfer of firearms between private, non-related persons could land a seller in jail for up to 10 years and impose a fine of up to $250,000 if passed into law.

The bill, Senate Bill 941, represents the third time Oregon Democrats have tried to pass such legislation in the last two years, but supporters say this time it looks like it has a better chance, with a larger Democratic legislative majority, the Eugene Register-Guard reports.

Passions are running high on both sides of the bill, sponsored by Eugene Democratic state Sen. Floyd Prozanski, and erupted at a public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which could vote on the bill as early as Thursday.

The bill would require that anyone wanting to transfer a gun privately must do so through a licensed firearms dealer, for a fee, and have a background check run through the Oregon State Police, unless selling the gun to a close relative, the Statesman Journal reports.

For a first offense, it would be a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail and a $6,250 fine. Do it twice and it becomes a felony and the heavier punishment kicks in.

Breitbart News commented, "Background checks will not keep guns out of the hands of some of the most dangerous persons — at least. They have failed to do so in the past, but in Oregon, they will crush you with a $250,000 fine for selling a gun to your co-worker."

Prozanski told the Statesman Journal, "My goal is to keep individuals who shouldn't have access to guns from having easy access to guns."

Kevin Starrett, head of the Oregon Firearms Federation, said, "If they were saying, 'Yes, it's an inconvenience for you people, but at least we're getting bad guys off the street,' I'd still object to it philosophically, but they'd have a practical argument."

"But they're not getting bad people off the street," he told the Statesman Journal.

At the hearing, Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer said that it was "borderline treasonous" to pass the bill, and that he had "no intention" of enforcing the bill if it is passed, Oregon Live reported.

NRA lobbyist Dan Reid told the Register-Guard that criminals obtain their guns through "theft, the black market or the use of straw purchasers," adding, "Only the law-abiding will comply with this new law."

Reid complained that if he were an Oregon resident leaving town for awhile, and wanted to store his firearms with a friend for safety, under the proposed law he would be required to transfer them through a licensed firearms dealer and pay a fee.

Former Portland Police Chief Mike Reese told the committee, "It is far too easy for a prohibited person to avoid a background check by simply buying a gun from an unlicensed seller," Oregon Live reported.

The law also would allow a judge to prohibit those under court-ordered mental health treatment from purchasing a gun and require police to notify local law enforcement if an applicant failed a background check, the Register-Guard reports.

I saw an article on Fox News about all the under handed ways that people are being separated from their legally owned firearms. In many cases even after court battles they are not getting them back. With the power of the pen any domestic violence act is a life sentence in the land of the free and home of the brave. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...bbing-sweeping-nation/?intcmp=latestnews .

Oregon is a closed system legal machine. Not like California or Washington which each have several law schools and relatively straightforward competence based bar exams. Oregon hasI think only one or two law schools and one universal police academy, so indoctrination of the functionaries in their legal system is very very cult like. Even on their federal side, they are most entirely all locals who just got federal jobs. Jury duty here is not an eye opener for anyone here unless they have legal education outside the area. Jury nullification is an entirely alien and wrongful sounding concept to them.

They run the state from. Fairly narrow corridor that stretches from portland to aeugene along I5, and if you look at the maps, that's just inside the northwest corner of the state, with most people cognitively calling Bend Oregon "the far eastern side of the state" when it is actually the middle. That's where for practical purposes, these laws don't work because they are set up to "require" supervisory control from central authority, but they are simply not around in most of the state. Portland, Salem and Eugene are the main cities, all relatively low crime for metropolitan areas and relatively close together. They also tend to suck up and dictate budget and policy for the rest of the state, controlling the outer areas through legal bullying, extortion, and selective distribution of infrastructure building contracts.

What they have done to gun shows on a regular basis if they feel the show venue is too remote and inconvenient for heavy investigative infiltration by government agents is they simply turn off the computers for the state background check system, they stop responding to background check requests, thus criminalizing every transfer which takes place during the blackout period.

Crime is fairly low in the urban areas, with the likes of Al Jazeera blaming it on the demographic being "too white" so they go inventing crimes and cries to be governed ad enforced on the outlying areas. That's where the average citizen encounter with the government in the outer areas is probably with some authoritarian jerk who is trying to fine them for some sort of infraction of the law, and such encounters already usually involve the government person trying to fish around a but for information about a gun law violation heather it is game wardens and nuances of hunting regulations, or leaning on families where one or more members of the fails got declared ineligible for gun ownership, therefore the entire family is under threat for asset seizure if for example, the felon is riding as a passenger in a pickup truck on the way to fix fences in the fields and there are some shotgun shells rattling around on the dashboard.

Now what they are looking at is even further extremes in mechanisms for extorting the rural peole who tend to need to have guns around in day to day lives. Just understand in those areas, 911 can be hours if not days away. There is functionally NO police protection in those areas, just the occasional but universally resented state police or game warden who pulls people over for a shakedown.

What is needed is to warn the government scum that if the bill is signed into law it will be ignored by any real American, and any attempt to use force to enforce it, will be met with equal force.

And if the bill does become law then real Americans need to do what was done in Washington and engage in a little public civil disobedience by openly engaging in the now illegal transfer of firearms and dare the government scum to do anything about it.