Bill in Salem would require permits to buy guns, limit ammunition

(Update: Adding House Republican leader news release)

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – A bill set to appear in the Legislature this year would require Oregonians to obtain a permit before buying a gun, limit the amount of ammunition a person could buy, outlaw magazines with a capacity of more than five rounds and create gun locking and storage requirements.

The Statesman Journal reports the measure is the broadest of more than a dozen bills dealing with guns submitted by lawmakers ahead of the 2019 Legislature , which convenes Jan. 22.

The bill came from Students for Change, a group of Lake Oswego teens formed last year after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Lake Oswego, and Sen. Rob Wagner, D- Tualatin, submitted Senate Bill 501 on their behalf.

Wagner said that it’s “probably a long shot that something like this passes in whole cloth,” but this is the bill the students wanted to put in front of the Legislature.

—

News release from House Republican Leader Carl Wilson:

Oregon legislature takes aim at 2 nd Amendment – again!

SALEM – Today, Oregon’s legislators return to Salem to prepare for the 2019 session. In their email inboxes, they will find Oregonians have already begun to react to proposed firearms–related bills. House Republican Leader Carl Wilson minced no words after review of SB 501:

“It’s clear we Second Amendment supporters have another existential struggle on our hands,” Wilson said. “Folks need to contact the sponsors, because the result of this bill will be to criminalize the average, gun-owning Oregonian.”

The bill is sponsored by Portland-area legislators Sen. Rob Wagner and Rep. Andrea Salinas, Among the bills effects:

Would require application for, and purchase of, a permit to purchase a firearm. Only two permits granted per person, per month (one for handguns and another for a rifle or shotgun); Would ban magazines capable of holding more than five rounds; Would require background checks for ammunition sales or transfers, which are restricted to 20 rounds per person in a 30-day period; Would make failure to report a lost or stolen firearm to law enforcement punishable with fine and/or imprisonment.

“It’s typical. When reactionary sentiment seeks to tighten its grip on criminal or predatory behavior, it’s the law-abiding who are throttled. The intended effect is never achieved, and plenty of unintended effects erupt.

“A permit is the very definition of infringement on a right,” Wilson continued. “Through the requirement that citizens obtain a permit to purchase a firearm, SB 501 would turn a Constitutionally recognized right into a pay-to-play privilege.”

Wilson is starkly critical of SB 501, as the bill creates in one fell swoop a huge class of potentially chargeable criminals – owners of some tens of thousands of now-legal magazines in cabinets across the state which accommodate more than five rounds. Victims of theft also face criminal charges, if they fail to report their lost firearm to the state.

“There is simply no way to make this palatable. No acceptable compromise,” Leader Wilson stated.

Said Wilson, “There’s much more to the story of violence than can be wished away by simply making more criminals. Or enacting unenforceable laws that erode the state’s credibility and the public’s confidence in the prospect of good governance or real safety.”