Contentious gun control bill passes Oregon Senate, heads to House
By Ashley Koch, KGW
SALEM, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) — Lawmakers have managed to make it through four months of the session without anyone walking out to try and stall voting on a bill they don't like, but one had some lawmakers thinking about it: Senate Bill 243.
"I've received emails from both sides. The vast majority of the emails I received told me to walk out, don't let this bill be heard," said Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles.
Incidentally, Bonham is already barred from running for reelection because he walked out of the 2023 session, so he has nothing to lose. But this week, he stayed at capital to argue against the bill.
SB 243 bans "bump stocks" and other rapid-fire activators one can attach to guns. They were once banned on the federal level, but that ban was overturned by the Supreme Court last year.
Lawmakers in support of the bill, such as Sen. Anthony Broadman, D-Bend, argue there's no legitimate reason to own them.
"These are accessories that turn otherwise legal firearms into machines of mass casualty, and they serve one purpose to fire as many rounds as quickly as possible," Broadman said. "This isn't a Republican or a Democrat issue. Even President Trump recognized the danger of bump stocks after the horror of the Route 91 Harvest Festival Las Vegas shooting in which a shooter used a bump stock to murder 60 people and injure another 869 in a matter of minutes."
The bill also allows local governments to decide for themselves if they want to bar people from bringing guns into public buildings, even if that person has a concealed carry permit.
Republicans say they could have backed the ban on bump stocks, but this second part of the bill goes too far.
"I would have had a hard time arguing against a device that made something shoot faster and less accurate. I can't imagine a time when that's beneficial short of a zombie apocalypse, should that come to fruition," proclaimed Sen. Todd Nash, R-District 29.
"I was the county commissioner a short time ago. I lived in the county ... we could afford one sheriff, five deputies. We didn't have the opportunity to have security at meetings; we didn't have the opportunity to have security at our courthouse," he continued.
Republicans say criminals would simply ignore signs outside buildings banning guns, and without security systems, especially in smaller towns and counties, they could bring them in anyway — and "good guys" with guns would need to leave theirs at home.
As happens with most gun bills in Salem, GOP lawmakers argued that the bill infringes on constitutional rights of responsible gun owners while doing nothing to target criminals. The bill passed the Senate on a party-line vote and now heads to the House.
