Oregon gun makers preparing to protest new legislation that would force citizens to obtain government permission before buying a firearm

America’s ‘Left Coast’ is continuing its trend of suppressing the constitutional rights of their citizens, largely by restricting their ability to enjoy full protection under the Second Amendment. 

California and Washington have both adopted stringent gun control measures, but lawmakers in the state of Oregon are set to consider a new bill that would actually require residents to get government permission before they can legally purchase a firearm.

As reported by Statesman Journal, the measure not only requires state residents to get a state-sanctioned permit before they can buy a gun, it would also ban magazines that can hold more than five rounds of ammunition and impose a mandatory gun lock and storage requirement. 

The bill is the most ambitious of more than a dozen pieces of gun control legislation that were submitted by state lawmakers ahead of January 22, when the legislature convened. 

The gun-licensing legislation was proposed by a group of teenagers from Lake Oswego who formed Students for Change in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shootings in Florida roughly a year ago. Those shootings, subsequent reports noted, were allegedly perpetrated by a former student who had a long history of mental and behavioral problems and who was well-known to school officials, local police and the FBI. 

The Oregon student group lobbied the state legislature and Gov. Kate Brown (D) last year for additional restrictions to gun rights, and pledged to return this year with an actual proposal — which was, unsurprisingly, taken up and submitted by two Democrats, Rep. Andrea Salinas and Sen. Rob Wagner in the form of Senate Bill 501.

“What we told them is that this is your movement, and we want to support you as representatives,” Wagner said — no matter what new restrictions, constitutional or not, the bill places on all of the law-abiding citizens of his state. 

These new provisions must be challenged

The student-sponsored bill will require anyone seeking to buy a gun to first obtain permission in the form of a permit from their local county sheriff. But the other bills build on SB 501 and include provisions like raising the minimum age for purchasing handguns or rifles to at least 21 years old (the federal age requirement for rifle purchases is 18 years old), lengthening background check delays and requiring gun owners to lock and store the weapons in such a way as to make them useless if needed in an emergency. 

Also, the additional measures call for prospective gun buyers to have to show proof that they have successfully completed a firearm safety class while limiting the number of permits to one rifle or shotgun and one handgun within a 30-day period.

Wagner admitted that the student group did all of the ‘research’ for their bill and that he hadn’t even considered the constitutionality of it. (Related: Pro-2nd groups sue Washington over new gun control restrictions the Left would never accept for the First Amendment.)

But other lawmakers did. 

“The Oregon Constitution is clearer about the Second Amendment than the United States Constitution. We value and respect firearms in Oregon — and this is not a partisan issue,” Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, said in a statement, the Statesman Journal reported. “The bill is culturally blind to the heritage of our state and Oregonians’ values.”

Gun rights advocates and firearms makers are planning a March event to protest SB 501 and other gun control legislation. An announcement posted to Instagram and reported by The Truth About Guns read, “Oregon-based gun makers Noveske and Radian Weapons have announced that they’re organizing a march on the nation’s most unattractive state capitol building on Saturday, March 23.”

The Left won’t stop until it restricts our right to keep and bear arms so much that it’s nearly impossible to obtain a gun. These provisions need to be challenged.

Read more about gun rights under attack at Guns.news.

Sources include:

StatesmanJournal.com

TheTruthAboutGuns.com

NewsTarget.com