By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
UPDATED: The Oregon Supreme Court has denied a request by the state Attorney General’s office for mandamus relief, leaving a state court injunction blocking implementation of gun control Measure 114 in place, allowing the trial court process to proceed.
The state high court issued the two-page “without prejudice.” The case is known as Arnold, et.al. v. Kotek, et.al.
“Our decision today does not serve as a bar to any future challenge in this court or otherwise on appeal,” the court explained. “Rather, at this juncture, and given our understanding that the trial court is proceeding as expeditiously as possible to resolve the issues that the parties have presented, we have determined that we should decline to exercise our mandamus discretion at this time.”
Meanwhile, there are still four federal court challenges, including two involving the Second Amendment Foundation, still pending.
But the state-level case is before Harney County Circuit Judge Robert Raschio. His decisions so far have left the state and the gun prohibition activists behind Measure 114 frustrated. The measure narrowly passed last November, but it was immediately challenged by nearly every major gun rights group in the country. In addition to SAF, the legal landscape is occupied by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation and, in a supporting role, the National Rifle Association, via the Oregon State Shooting Association (OSSA), an NRA state affiliate.
OSSA is also an affiliate of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, so that group is also somewhat on the playing field, if only by association. CCRKBA is a sister organization of SAF as well.
“We recognize that the legal status of Measure 114 is of significant concern to many Oregonians,” the court acknowledged in its decision. “Of course, it is the role of the judicial branch of government to resolve disputes such as challenges to laws enacted by the legislative branch, which includes the people exercising their initiative power. That resolution is underway in the trial court; our only determination today is that now is not an appropriate time to exercise our authority in mandamus in connection with the trial court’s temporary and preliminary rulings.”
Measure 114 is seen by many to be the most extreme gun control measure in the country, banning the future sale of so-called “high capacity magazines,” and requiring training and a permit-to-purchase issued by a police agency in order to purchase a firearm.
The initial fight to defeat the measure was led by the Oregon Firearms Federation, which filed the first lawsuit challenging the initiative back on Nov. 20. OFF Executive Director Kevin Starrett called it “a massive win.”
“Simply put, this means that Mz 114 is still blocked in its entirety and, for the moment, law abiding gun owners do not face arrest for possessing common ammunition magazines,” Starrett said in a statement on the OFF website.
