Gun prohibition lobbying groups on both sides of the Columbia River are mounting a new offensive to ratchet down on Second Amendment rights, launching efforts to—as noted by the Washington State Standard— “make it tougher and more expensive to buy a firearm.”
Because legislatures in both Oregon and Washington are dominated by Democrats, who have become the “party of gun prohibition,” according to critics, the gun control movement sees opportunities in both states to achieve their goal. Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and incoming Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson—also both Democrats—are gun control proponents.
Standing in opposition are Pacific Northwest gun rights organizations and national groups including the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, which has its national headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.
Oregon.Live/Portland Oregonian recently reported how the Beaver State’s leading gun control group, the Alliance for a Safe Oregon, “is pushing for Oregon to strengthen oversight of firearms dealers in the state.” The Oregon group recently published a 19-page report asserting that nearly 75 percent of the 26,046 firearms recovered in crimes from 2017 to 2021 were originally purchased from gun dealers in the state, and the crimes in which they were recovered happened within 25 miles of the point-of-purchase.
Oregon anti-gunners have four recommendations:
1) State Licensing: Implement a licensing requirement for gun dealers with annual reporting to monitor compliance.
2) Inventory Control: Require inventory tracking and reporting.
3) Security and Storage: Mandate secure inventory storage practices* and the use of security cameras at the point of sale to deter theft.
4) Employee Background Checks and Training: Require background checks for all employees involved in firearm sales and training to recognize and prevent straw purchases and trafficking with clear protocols for reporting suspicious activity.
(*Oregon’s child access law today requires firearms to be sold with a trigger lock or other locking cable, but there are no requirements for storage of inventory behind bars or in safes, etc., which allow easy access for criminals to break in and steal firearms as well as ammunition, according to the Alliance report.)
Kevin Starrett at the Oregon Firearms Federation is familiar with the gun control group’s agenda, and he has expressed concerns it will allow the Oregon State Police to take longer with state background checks.
Across the border in Washington, the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility has posted its agenda online, as previously reported. High on their list of priorities is to pass legislation requiring a permit to purchase, which will create a double background check process. First a person needs to pass a check, provide proof of safety training including a live fire exercise and then get the purchase permit. Then, when a gun is purchased, the buyer must also pass a background check.
In addition to the purchase permit, Renee Hopkins, CEO at the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, also wants a new tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition, and the group’s agenda once again takes aim at Washington State’s 40-year-old firearms preemption statute.
“We must apply additional safeguards by expanding restrictions into parks and public buildings and allowing local governing bodies to craft regulations that fit the needs of their communities,” their agenda says.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb told the Washington Standard via email, “No other enumerated constitutional right requires a permit from the government to be exercised.
“Likewise,” he added, “the exercise of other constitutional rights cannot be subjected to a punitive tax. Why single out the Second Amendment?”
Why, indeed?
Grassroots Second Amendment activists are essentially unified in their belief the gun control organizations are laboring to turn the right to keep and bear arms into a government-regulated privilege. The more laws they can pass with the work of Democrats, the quicker this erosion will occur. The next legislative sessions in both Oregon and Washington promise to be lively.
