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Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, April 28, 2021
House panel ponders linking fi rearms storage, narrower ban
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Legislation
that combines proposed
requirements for fi rearms
locks and safe storage with
a narrower ban on fi rearms
in public buildings is gain-
ing political momentum in
the Oregon House.
The House Rules Com-
mittee heard a proposal to
combine elements of two
bills, one awaiting a vote
of the full House and a sec-
ond that has already passed
the Senate. If it happens,
the House would have to
take only one vote, instead
of two, on a fi rearms regu-
lation bill — and the Senate
would have to vote only on
whether to accept the fi nal
version.
“In this legislation we
kind of mash them together,”
House Republican Leader
Christine Drazan of Canby,
who sits on the committee,
said during a presentation
Wednesday, April 21.
Republicans were already
dead set against House Bill
2510, which awaits a vote of
the full House. The House
Health Care Committee
advanced it March 30 on a
party-line vote.
That bill would require
the storage of fi rearms with
trigger or cable locks, in a
locked container or in a gun
room. An off ense is a Class
C violation, which carries
a maximum fi ne of $500,
unless someone under age
18 obtains access, in which
case it is a Class A viola-
tion with a maximum fi ne
of $2,000. No jail time is
imposed for violations.
Its chief sponsor is Rep.
Rachel Prusak, D-West
Linn, who has advocated it
on behalf of a constituent
since her election in 2018.
She said she would sup-
port it becoming part of a
broader bill.
“No one is under the illu-
sion that enacting a safe stor-
age law will stop all gun vio-
lence,” Prusak said. “Many
responsible gun owners
already lock up their guns.
The goal of this safe-storage
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Wallowa County Chieftain, File
A man stands armed at last year’s Black Lives Matter rally in Enterprise. Legislation that
combines proposed requirements for fi rearms locks and safe storage with a narrower ban
on fi rearms in public buildings is gaining political momentum in the Oregon House, it was
announced last week.
fi rearms bill is to change the
behavior of the portion of
gun owners whose careless
actions lead to death and
injury of others.”
Split view of changes
The Rules Committee
proposes to combine it with
a narrower version of Senate
Bill 554, which passed the
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Senate on a 16-7 vote March
25. All votes for it came
from Democrats; one Dem-
ocrat joined six Republicans
against it, and the rest were
excused or absent.
The original bill would
bar all fi rearms from state
buildings, including the
Capitol, and local govern-
ments would have the option
of barring them from their
own buildings. In essence,
the ban would apply to the
estimated 300,000 hold-
ers of concealed-hand-
gun licenses, who are now
exempt from weapons bans
in public buildings.
The proposed amend-
ment would narrow the
scope of the Senate bill.
The proposed ban would
apply to the Capitol, but not
other state buildings. (State
courts, which are often in
buildings maintained by
counties, already ban weap-
ons by orders on the presid-
ing judges.)
It would allow boards of
the seven state universities,
17 community college dis-
tricts and 197 school dis-
tricts to bar fi rearms from
their buildings, but not their
grounds. Unlike the Sen-
ate-passed bill, cities, coun-
ties and special districts
would not be allowed to
bar fi rearms borne by con-
cealed-handgun licensees.
Sen. Ginny Burdick, a
Democrat from Portland
and a longtime supporter of
fi rearms regulation, said the
proposed change goes too
far.
“I’ve been in this process
a long time, and I under-
stand the necessity for com-
promise,” she said at a Rules
Committee hearing. “But the
amended version goes way
too far in terms of weaken-
ing the bill.”
Though the proposal
would still bar fi rearms
inside the Capitol, she said,
“In the climate we live in,
state buildings need to be
included.”
She also said if school
boards have discretion to bar
fi rearms from their build-
ings, their grounds need to
be included, “because sports
activities can get pretty hot,
as we all know, and they
need to be covered.”
As passed by the Sen-
ate, public sidewalks and
streets are excluded from
regulation.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a
Democrat from Eugene who
leads the Senate Judiciary
Committee, off ered substi-
tute language.
“It only seems appro-
priate for us to give local
control to school boards,
community colleges and
universities to make the
determination what is best
for them and their proper-
ties, not just their buildings,”
he said.
The House committee is
considering other amend-
ments, including one by
Rep. Brian Clem, D-Salem,
that would enable local gov-
ernments to regulate fi re-
arms in public parks. He
also proposed an amend-
ment that would do away
with state preemption of
most local fi rearms ordi-
nances — a law that dates
to 1995 — but conceded it
would go nowhere.
Previous killings
Oregon has experienced
two notable instances of gun
violence in schools.
In 1998, two died and 25
were wounded at Thurston
High School in Springfi eld
after expelled student Kip-
land Kinkel shot his parents
to death. Kinkel, who was
15 at the time, is in a state
prison. In 2015, an assis-
tant professor and eight stu-
dents died, and eight were
wounded, by a student gun-
man at Umpqua Community
College near Roseburg. The
gunman took his own life.
Attorney General Ellen
Rosenblum said she has
taken part in marches spon-
sored by Students Demand
Action, part of the national
group Everytown for Gun
Safety.
“This bill makes a clear
opportunity for Oregon lead-
ers to show our young peo-
ple that we hear them and
we care about their safety,”
Rosenblum said to the com-
mittee. “It takes a small but
important step in ensuring
that Oregonians can learn
safely without the threat of
gun violence.”
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