Lawmakers in Oregon have decided that every firearm in the state should be put under lock and key, a move that would prevent easy access should those gun owners need to defend themselves if ever they are confronted by an intruder bent on evil.
The Associated Press reported the bill was signed by Gov. Kate Brown this week which was approved by the legislature over the objection of minority Republicans.
It also bans firearms in the state Capitol building, which earlier had been allowed under the policies then in effect.
Brown claimed on social media she hopes her move will “help spare more Oregon families from the grief of losing a loved one to gun violence.”
Backers of the new law suggested it will prevent accidental shootings, suicides, and mass shootings, because it demands that guns “be secured with a trigger or cable lock, in a locked container or gun room,” the AP reported.
Opponents pointed out that demanding that guns be locked up means homeowners would need to take time to grab a key, open a safe and draw out a weapon when they are confronted by potentially violent criminals.
“Jim Mischel, of Sheridan, Oregon, provided written testimony to lawmakers describing how his wife woke up when he was away one night in 1981. She heard a noise, went to investigate and saw a stranger in their home. She tried to get a pistol that was in a locked gun box in the nightstand out but was unable to before the man got into the bedroom and threatened her with his gun, Mischel said. ‘She has never recovered,’ he said,” according to AP.
While the Democrat-controlled state government in Colorado also has adopted extreme gun restrictions this year, similar proposals in other states, including Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, Virginia and Montana, have failed.
In Colorado, Democrats control both houses of the legislature as well as the governor’s office, and have for a number of years. They’ve openly bludgeoned the 2nd Amendment with their work, including one of the early “red flag” laws that allows authorities to confiscate a person’s legal weapons because of what someone else feels about them.
Their agenda has produced a backlash, too.
The Denver Post reported Douglas County commissioners recently adopted a resolution opposing the legislature’s plan to give permission to local governments to enact any sort of strict gun limit, even more than what state law allows.
The commissioners said their statement was to support their citizens’ “rights to due process, to bear arms and to defend themselves from evil.”
Colorado anti-gun agenda also has produced, in local sheriffs and other election officials, statements of independence from the state mandates.
In 2019 Weld County declared itself a “Second Amendment sanctuary” because of the state’s “red flag” agenda.
The Post reported that Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell posted May 4 on his office’s Facebook page that “some believe the right to keep and bear arms is not absolute.”
“I am here to tell you, it is,” he wrote. “Your right to bear arms is absolute and will not be infringed by my office, regardless of any orders or legislative decrees.”
Dave Kopel, of the Independence Institute, said there is a “plausible legal argument” for the actions of those local officials. After all, the state itself in 2012 declared marijuana legal even though the federal government still holds possession and use to be criminal.
Colorado’s laws include storage requirements and more, too.
Ironically, with its gun restrictions some of the most expansive in the nation, Colorado has seen two mass shootings just this year, in Boulder where 10 died and in Colorado Springs where seven, including the shooter, died.
And the state’s history of mass shootings dates back decades, highlighted by the Columbine school shooting.
Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams told the Post that the gun laws actually don’t even begin to address the issue that society faces.
The real problem is the mental health of the criminals who commit crimes, he said.
“Until we address that, all the gun bills in the world aren’t going to do what the proponents of these bills want,” he said.
Via Wnd
