By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
The Oregon Legislature has passed a bill to ban so-called “ghost guns” in a climax to what Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) called “the longest (legislative) walkout in Oregon history” as Republicans had been absent in an effort to prevent majority Democrats from moving any legislation.
The Oregon Firearms Federation (OFF) posted a blistering reaction on their website, accusing House Republicans of folding up. The group described the legislative process leading up to passage of the bill as “a deal only Hunter Biden could love.”
House Bill 2005 bans “undetectable firearms” made by any means including 3-D printing which do not have serial numbers. Violation is a Class B felony.
The legislation now goes to Democrat Gov. Tina Kotek. OPB said the new legislation “effectively expands on the legal definition of a firearm under federal law to include unfinished frames and lower receivers, major handgun and rifle components which, when fully fabricated, require a serial number.”
OPB seemed to lament the loss of other restrictive language from the legislation.
“The original gun safety legislation would have also allowed cities and counties to prohibit firearms in their buildings and raise the minimum age to buy a firearm in Oregon from 18 to 2,” OPB reported. “Those provisions were scrapped as part of a deal to bring Senate Republicans back to work.”
It took eight paragraphs before the OPB story acknowledged something which usually never gets reported. It came following a quote from anti-gun Gov. Kotek.
“This is a common sense, long overdue reform that I hope can prevent the kinds of tragedies we saw last year in Buffalo, Uvalde and Bend,” Kotek said at the March rally before HB 2005 was stripped of its age restrictions, the OBP story noted.
The news agency then noted, “None of the firearms used in the three mass shootings Kotek referenced would have been illegal under the bill passed Wednesday.”
“The Democrats got everything they wanted, the conservative Republicans and Oregonians, got screwed,” OFF said.
The gun rights group is one of several organizations suing Oregon to prevent enactment of Measure 114, passed by voters on a razor-thin margin last November. A trial was held in U.S. District Court earlier this month and now both sides are waiting for a ruling which, regardless how it comes down, will almost certainly be appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
