As we’ve repeatedly noted, the Moms Demand/Gunsense/Everytown groups are colluding to create a “West Coast Wall” of gun control laws, with the aim of taking California-style gun control up the coast.

In Oregon, they’re not only imitating California’s laws - they’re imitating the deceptive practices of California’s lawmakers by using their version of gut-and-amend in their quest to limit rights.

Last Monday, April 17, the Senate Judiciary Committee was to take up three “priority” (of the gun grabbers) gun control bills, SB 868, SB 797, and SB 764. Normally committees have a public hearing on a bill, then vote on it during a committee work session. However, since these bills were policy bills and had to be acted on by April 18, the committee planned to hold a public hearing then vote in the same session. But, in what the chair later said was an oversight, the hearing was closed after the public comments, with no votes taken and without the chair carrying the bills over to Tuesday’s meeting.

The bills were dead. Panic ensued.

Lawmakers then used a “gut-and-stuff” to amend SB 719 - a bill directing the state court administrator to study ways to improve efficiency -  to include the full language of SB 868, the “Extreme Risk” protection order bill, and promptly passed it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, keeping this part of Bloomberg’s dream alive for the 2017 session - for now.

As for the other two bills; SB 764, which was proposed to be amended as a catch-all for anti-gun priorities and SB 797, which was a de facto gun-ban for those purchasers who were victims of shoddy record keeping by the state police to determine their eligibility to purchase firearms, are currently stuck in their respective committees.

Staying informed about the legislative process is difficult enough for most gun owners, who are working hard to provide for their families and active in their communities. This deceptive gut-and-stuff practice makes it even more difficult for people to take part in the democratic process - and Oregon’s lawmakers should disavow it.