Major Oregon gun control bills pass out of committee; call for gun permits, raise age limit
Two major Oregon gun control bills – one that incorporates and expands Measure 114 and the other offering a package of regulations banning ghost guns and raising the age for gun possession – passed legislative tests Tuesday on party-line votes.
Senate Bill 348 – mostly mirroring the main provisions of Measure 114, now stalled in court challenges — passed 3-2 out of the Senate Judiciary Committee to the chamber floor with a referral to the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
It calls for a permit to buy a gun starting July 1, 2024, requires state police to complete a background check before gun sales or transfers and sets a new waiting period before a seller can turn over a gun to a customer after approval.
The Joint Ways and Means Subcommittee on Public Safety voted 5-3 to send an amended House Bill 2005, known as the 2023 Gun Violence Prevention Package, to the full Ways and Means Committee.
It would make it a crime to manufacture, sell or possess a gun without a serial number starting Sept. 1, 2024, prohibit people under 21 from possessing guns except for certain hunting rifles and allow cities or counties to bar people from carrying guns in public buildings or on adjacent grounds.
State Rep. Paul Evans, D-Monmouth, said HB 2005, supported by Gov. Tina Kotek, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Moms Demand Action, is intended to balance community safety with personal liberty and do “more good than harm.”
It addresses “18-, 19- and 20-year-olds that are frustrated with the world and don’t know what else to do but communicate through violence,” Evans said.
“If there’s a way to stop that, that’s what I was hoping that this bill would do, while still preserving as much of the hunting tradition as possible.”
House Democrats in a statement cited a statistic that people 21 or younger have carried out six of nine of the deadliest mass shootings in the country since 2018.
But Sen. David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, said he worried that HB 2005 would create a “hodgepodge” of different rules and “gun-free zones” across the state and could make criminals out of law-abiding citizens.
Sen. Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, countered with an example of what happens to people who inadvertently bring guns into the Oregon Capitol, where they’re banned. They’re asked to secure them elsewhere, she said.
“There’s not an intent to make criminals out of people who want to be law-abiding citizens,” she said.
Some lawmakers suspect either bill will get bogged down in future legal challenges if ultimately approved, as has Measure 114, narrowly passed by Oregonians in November.
State Rep. Jeffrey Helfrich, R-Hood River, a former Portland police officer, said the state already has spent about a half a million dollars defending Measure 114 in state and federal court. He said he’s concerned more public dollars will be diverted to defend the additional gun bills.
A Harney County judge has blocked Measure 114 from taking effect until he decides whether it meets state constitutional provisions. It sets out a system for gun permits, bans magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition except for hunting or recreational shooting and requires a completed criminal background check before gun sales.
ADDRESS ‘IMPULSE BUYING’
In addition to requiring permits and completed background checks to buy a gun, Senate Bill 348 includes Measure 114′s large-capacity magazine ban. It would be effective retroactively to Dec. 8, 2022, the date the measure was set to take effect.
The bill goes further than Measure 114 by also raising the age for gun buyers, creating a new waiting period of 72 hours to obtain a gun and increasing the fees to obtain a gun permit.
Similar to HB 2005, it would raise the age to get a permit and buy a gun to 21 with one temporary exception: 18-,19- and 20-year-olds could buy certain hunting rifles and shotguns without a permit until July 2026 — as long as they have completed a gun safety course.
A seller couldn’t transfer a gun to a customer without waiting 72 hours after receiving a state police approval number following a completed criminal background check.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, said the wait would address “impulse buying” of guns and reduce potential suicides and domestic violence-related shootings by providing a “cooling-off period” before a customer would get a gun.
The committee members also approved a last-minute amendment that would require any legal challenge to the Senate bill to be filed only in Marion County Circuit Court.
‘NEEDS MORE WORK’
The vote came just hours after leaders of the interfaith grassroots group Lift Every Voice Oregon held a news conference in support of SB 348 but also calling for some changes. The group collected the required signatures to place Measure 114 on the ballot.
“It’s a good bill. It needs more work,” said attorney Liz McKanna, a member of the legislative committee for the Measure 114 campaign.
Lift Every Voice Oregon is concerned that the Senate bill delays the general permit requirement until July 2024 and further delays the permit requirement for hunting rifles and certain shotguns until 2026, McKanna said.
The group also wanted the bill to allow for a third party or “neutral” location other than a police agency or sheriff’s office to accept gun permit applications, believing some people will be reluctant to go directly to law enforcement. Even a courthouse would be acceptable, McKanna said.
In related action, the Senate Judiciary Committee separately voted 3-2 to send another bill to the floor, Senate Bill 393, with an amendment that contains the same language requiring a 72-hour wait before a gun can be sold to a permit holder. Senate Bill 393 would take effect on the 91st day after the Legislature adjourns.
It’s intended to preserve the waiting period if the more comprehensive Senate Bill 348 passes and faces a court challenge, according to Prozanski.
He cited a 2021 report in “The Review of Economics and Statistics,” that said states that adopted such gun purchase delays recorded 2% lower homicide rates. Prozanski said the Senate Bill 393 is being supported, independent of the more comprehensive bill.
Joining Prozanski in support of both gun control bills were Sens. Sara Gelser Blouin, D-Corvallis, and James Manning Jr., D-Eugene. Sens. Kim Thatcher, committee vice chair, and Dennis Linthicum, R-Klamath, voted against both bills.
Joining Evans in support of the amended House Bill 2005 were Sens. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, Elizabeth Steiner, D-Portland, and Reps. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland, and Daniel Nguyen, D-Lake Oswego/Portland. Those voting against it were Rep. Rick Lewis, R-Silverton, Helfrich and Brock Smith.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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