With the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in Orlando still fresh in the news, Oregon Governor Kate Brown outlined a multi-part attack on the Second Amendment.
We have already written about the first part of her attack - the issuance of executive orders. The second prong of her attack is her plan for the 2017 legislative session.
Brown has already given a preview of her plan, where she’ll direct anti-gun lawmakers to ruthlessly savage gun rights while expanding definitions that would unintentionally harm law-abiding Oregonians.
Brown first proposed to close “the Charleston Loophole,” a term she borrowed from Hillary Clinton and which references the 2015 shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
“By closing the Charleston Loophole, we make sure individuals who should not own a gun are not able to obtain one simply because authorities were unable to complete the background check within the current timelines,” Brown said at her press conference.
This so-called “loophole” is standard gun purchasing procedure in the United States where, in Oregon’s case, Oregon State Police (OSP) have three full days to complete a background check on a firearms purchase. Currently, if the OSP does not reply after three full days, the purchaser may retrieve their property without further delay. Brown looks to provide the OSP an indefinite timeline to complete background checks rather than fix the background check system.
Electrons do not take three days to travel to a computerized workstation and determine if the purchaser is prohibited or not. Governor Brown is shifting the state's burden onto the gun owners and ignoring the actual problem: OSP is either unable or unwilling to make a determination within three full days as to whether or not the person is a convicted criminal or otherwise prohibited.
Brown is also attempting to close another purported loophole, one she deems the “boyfriend loophole,” but which is really an attempt to expand the definition of the types of relationships that can be considered a “domestic violence” assault.
If you listen to Brown’s rhetoric, you’d think that dangerous abusers were allowed access to firearms through this “boyfriend loophole.” But Oregon already passed a bill in 2015 that prohibited individuals convicted of domestic violence from possessing firearms or ammunition. Prohibitions under current law also include qualifying misdemeanors that involve the use or attempted use of force or weapons. Oregon also prohibits persons under certain court orders, such as restraining orders against intimate partners, from purchasing or possessing firearms. This is in addition to a lifetime prohibition for convicted misdemeanor domestic abusers under federal law.
Brown’s plan may expand the definition of “domestic” to include relationships that do not involve cohabitation, child-rearing or intimacy. In other words, she wants a “ non-domestic abuse” category.
Words have meaning. Words have value. By redefining formerly understood language to fit into an anti-gun narrative, Governor Brown politicizes and cheapens important real-world issues like domestic violence and the people who confront it in order to further a narrative and agenda of big city billionaires and anti-gun zealots.
Brown’s final legislative goal is to fulfill an item off of the gun-ban lobby’s wish list that includes outlawing magazines that can hold rounds that exceed some arbitrary number. Currently, Oregon has no infringements on the means to self-defense on the books.
Brown is intentionally ambiguous with her proposals, giving her and her gun-grabbing allies a blank slate to constrain law-abiding gun owners.
Brown feels confident in announcing her 2017 legislative outlook in the middle of the 2016 campaign because if she wins, which is likely, she will use her victory as a mandate to target gun owners.
Brown was appointed governor last year and is running this November to finish out her predecessor’s term with the help of anti-gun astro-turf organizations in the Pacific Northwest. Those groups envision a “West Coast Wall” of gun control, stretching from Mexico to Canada, and can already count on Kate Brown and her anti-gun policies.
These astro-turf organizations, including Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown,” have dumped nearly a million dollars into Oregon politics in their attempt to build this West Coast Wall.
Our enemies stand together, and as gun owners, we need to stand united to fight.
Can we count you in?
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