U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “A proposed bill that would require a lock and safe to be purchased when buying a firearm, could minimize the use of stolen firearms, an issue the Medford Police Department (MPD) says they see routinely,” CBS affiliate News 10 reported Friday. “[T]he Oregon House Health Care Committee held a hearing for Bill HB2510… The bill would require current and future firearm owners to secure their device(s) with a trigger or cable lock and place it in a locked container, violating this bill could result in a maximum $500 fine.”
This seems a good place to repeat some information that has been around for a while, but that too few seem aware of:
“Dennis Henigan of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence drops the ball in front of a roomful of reporters, while trying to prove the efficacy of Saf-T-Lok, a purportedly easy-to-use combination lock in the gun’s grip. Henigan fumbles and fails to unlock the gun in a well-lit room with no intruder at the door… Finally disengaging the safety, he apologizes, ‘Most people aren’t as klutzy as I am.’” – From “Lawyers, Guns and Money” by Matt Labash, The Weekly Standard, Feb. 1, 1999
And from Gambino crime family underboss Sammy “The Bull” Gravano:
“Safety locks? You will pull the trigger with a lock on, and I’ll pull the trigger. We’ll see who wins.”
Just to make sure everyone is primed to accept disaster if the bill is not enacted into law, proponents cite a homicide by a 17-year-old that might have been prevented. They then reluctantly admit they really have no idea where the killer had obtained his stolen gun from. And as usual with such reports, it presents “expert opinions” from “authorities” as diverse as the police, Democrat politicians, and Moms Demand Action members, even citing Everytown “studies” for added “credibility”!
“No one wants to take guns away,” one Demanding Mom assures us. “We just want them to be stored.”
You believe that, don’t you? Once they pass this, they’ll go away and leave us alone?
In fairness, the report also cites the NRA’s Eddie Eagle program, the claim that victims will be penalized and that their firearms will be rendered useless for self-defense. It also quotes gun owner Heinz Mueller, who opposes the bill on Constitutional and practical grounds.
But what it does not do is go to the most knowledgeable source for how Oregon politicians work and the real impacts such measures will have on freedom, Oregon Firearms Federation’s Executive Director, the tireless Kevin Starrett.
“Today the House Committee on Health Care heard HB2510, a bill to hold gun owners liable for the violent crimes of thieves,” OFF alerted members Thursday. “As expected, the deck was strongly stacked in favor of gun grabbers and the technical failures that have become the hallmark of Oregon Legislative hearings seemed to occur almost exclusively when opponents of the bill were attempting to testify.”
OFF gave a representative sampling of testimony by gun-grabbers, a government official “who supported the bill because she had been attacked by a rapist with a gun” a teacher who asserted “that the word ‘regulate’ in [the Second] Amendment referred to guns,” and even “a long time anti-rights activist [who] testified against the bill because it did not punish gun owners harshly enough.”
Don’t worry, that will come.
The only real defense gun owners have in the legislature is if the Democrats fail to achieve the required quorum to pass a bill. To that end, OFF is urging Republicans who campaign as “pro-gun” to walk out and refuse to participate. And to counter that, “Oregon Senate Democrats have doubled down and introduced a rule change to punish Senate Republicans should they refuse to participate in these attacks.”
“If the Senate Republicans are on the floor when this rule is voted on, their ability to stop any outrageous legislation will be effectively ended,” OFF warns. “House Republicans already made this mistake and were on the floor when a similar rule was passed in that chamber. That is now being used as an excuse for their unwillingness to walk out.”
“So now, the future of gun rights in Oregon is in the hands of one person. That is Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod,” OFF advises. “Girod has made no secret of his reluctance to stand up to the Democrats and lead a walkout even though other Republican Senators are determined to fight back.”
“Please call Girod at 503-986-1709 and email him at [email protected],” OFF asks. “Oregonians are very close to losing everything. It’s time to remind the Republicans what they were elected to do.”
If you do “social media” (or more properly, if you use it as advocacy media instead of the trivial nonsense most waste their time with), you can also make your views known on Facebook and Twitter by leaving a comment under one of Sen. Girod’s posts.
From time to time on my War on Guns blog, I post “Five-Minute Activism” projects, easy things to do, well within everybody’s capabilities. They can be done with very little effort, not much more than the time it takes the chronically negative to post a comment dissing the idea. I’m asking readers right now, not later, if you live in Oregon, do this. If you don’t live there but have any gun-owning friends who do, please let them know.
If you feel like spending 10 minutes and putting a little bit more into things, you can go here and do the right thing.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
MDA exhibits many of the ten telltale signs of being a cult. If it walks like a duck…quacks like a duck…..
More appropriately for that bunch pictured in the article would be, “If it waddles like a pig and squeals like a pig…” I would bet there are more never married cat ladies in the group than there are moms.
Has even one Republican politician ever pointed out that the Moms Demand Action website does not promote the four rules of firearm safety?
Notice 99% of the women in these MDA shirts are white?
Thinks he ‘s gonna get laid if he goes along.
My ‘activism’ is far better spent preparing for the second American Revolution; coming soon to a neighborhood near you.