Ballot Measure 114 is now facing Firearms Policy Coalition, who has filed the second lawsuit aiming to take it out. The measure, which will be the law of the land after December 8, would ban magazines with a capacity greater than 10 rounds, and would require a permit to purchase for anyone wishing to express their enumerated 2nd Amendment right by purchasing or selling a firearm.
The mendicants that orchestrated measure 114, which won with a <2% margin, seem to have completely failed to make any sort of preparation for actually implementing the law. Under it, one must pass a firearms safety class with a live-fire section, then pay a fee to be granted a license to purchase a gun. Unfortunately not only is there is no enumerated class, there is not even a curriculum, funding (the program is estimated to cost $40,000,000/yr) instructors, or facilities in the state to make such a requirement accessible for all Oregonians, let alone marginalized groups who may not have money or transportation to go to such a class.
In a city of over 600,000, there are precisely 5 gun ranges. Even if there were classes and permits available immediately, the obvious bottleneck this would create puts this bill on shaky constitutional ground all by itself. Then we get in to the fact that the police they wanted to defund 2 years ago now being the arbiters of a constitutional right, and the magazine capacity restrictions. Given the original intent of the 2A was focused on producing an armed citizenry with access to military weapons, the idea that limiting magazine capacity to 10rd will stand up to the historical test required by the SCOTUS Bruen decision is laughable.
Between the total failure to plan ahead for this new law, its’ blatant unconstitutionality and obvious disregard for the rights of all OR citizens, not least of which the poorest among us, we are hopeful that the courts will do the right thing and put this whole debacle to bed.
