Voters in Oregon this week passed Ballot Measure 114, one of the more restrictive gun control measures in the country. It passed 51% to 49%, with 77% reporting, according to the Oregonian, and remaining counties yet to be tabulated at the time of publication all heavily favor the measure.
The new law, referred to as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, will require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection and a permit to purchase any firearm, the Daily Caller reported.
Beyond the new restrictions, the National Rifle Association (NRA) says the legislation’s ambiguous language fails to safeguard gun owner information by creating a searchable gun owner database.
“The ballot measure gives the power to each permit issuing department to annually publish ‘any additional information that it determines would be helpful’ to the process. That information includes names, addresses, and a whole host of additional personal information that would be released to the public,” NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This ballot measure fails to safeguard law-abiding gun owners’ personal information – and, by proxy, information of families, friends, and employers – being made public. Failing to include those safeguards puts lives and property at risk.”
The Oregonian calls Measure 114, Firearms restrictions ballot measure: Passes.
Measure 114 would require Oregonians to pay a $65 fee for a permit to buy a gun and would ban the sale or transfer of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. pic.twitter.com/a13lepSKUo
— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) November 9, 2022
The Reduction of Gun Violence Act will place every registered owner of a firearm in the database, according to the legislation.
California currently maintains a database of concealed carry permit holders. The contents of their database was leaked in June. Advocates for gun rights have argued that centralized gun databases lead to an abuse of power.
“This measure will not make our community safer. It will put our communities at greater risk for violence because it requires that every sheriff’s office and police agency divert scarce public safety resources to background systems that already exist,” Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said in a video statement, Fox News reported.
Measure 114 goes beyond Oregon’s pre-existing requirement for background checks by adding the permit-to-purchase program, a gun safety course regulated by the police and restrict magazine capacity to ten rounds. In total, the new legislation will cost the state approximately $49 million annually, according to Fox.
A Second Amendment advocate noted, “It’s made owning a firearm in Oregon the equivalent to obtaining a driver’s license, which is a ‘privilege,’ not a ‘right.’ Last I checked, the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights says gun ownership is a ‘right,’ not a ‘privilege.’ I believe this law miserably fails the constitutional test and will be challenged in court.”
