Anti-Gunners Push Law Limiting Ammo Purchases to 20 Bullets Per Month and 5 Round or Smaller Magazines
Emboldened by their strong showing the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats have begun to charge full steam ahead with absurd and unconstitutional proposals for strict gun control legislation.
The Oregonian reported that strict gun control legislation was introduced in the Oregon state legislature by two Democrats — Sen. Rob Wagner and Rep. Andrea Salinas — in conjunction with the anti-gun youth activist group Students for Change, which arose in the wake of the tragic mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.
The legislation, filed as SB 501, is blatantly unconstitutional on its face in many aspects — from permitting requirements to strict ammunition limits — and an affront to law-abiding gun owners everywhere. Given the strong Democratic majorities in the state legislature and an openly anti-Second Amendment governor, Kate Brown, this ridiculous bill actually has a chance of being passed and signed into law.
The anti-gun bill reveals its unconstitutionality by imposing a requirement on prospective gun buyers to first obtain a purchasing permit from their local county sheriff, who is allowed to charge a “reasonable fee” to issue said permit within 30 days, and who retains the right to deny the issuance of said permit for any or no reason at all.
To qualify for the purchasing permit, potential gun buyers must be 21 years of age, pass a firearms safety course and otherwise be permitted by state and federal law to possess a firearm. Once issued, the permit for purchase would remain valid for 90 days, and could only be used for the purchase of one handgun or one rifle or one shotgun within a 30 day period.
Failure to comply with the purchasing permit scheme would constitute a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and/or a $6,250 fine.
The bill would require that all firearms be locked up when not directly in use, either in a safe or via cable or trigger locks. Furthermore, the bill would require that gun owners report the loss or theft of a firearm within 24 hours. Failure to comply with either of those mandates would constitute a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a $1,250 fine.
Finally, we get to the real meat of this anti-gun legislation in Section 6 of the bill, a de facto ban on “ammunition feeding devices” — whether detachable or fixed — that have the capacity to hold more than five rounds of ammunition. The only exceptions to this rule are .22-caliber or lever-action firearms with tubular magazines, as well as magazines that have been “permanently altered” so they can no longer hold more than five rounds.
Any magazine capable of holding more than five rounds has been defined as a “large capacity magazine,” and there is no grandfather clause allowing for the continued possession of such “ammunition feeding devices,” meaning any owned by Oregon gun owners prior to the enactment of this law would be forced to destroy, give away, sell or turn in to authorities their now-illegal magazines.
Violation of the ban on “large capacity magazines” would be another Class A misdemeanor, carrying the same sort of punishment as a violation of the purchase permit scheme.
The bill also imposes a limit allowing the purchase of no more than 20 rounds of ammunition within a 30 day period — though gun owners are allowed to purchase and expend unlimited amounts of ammo at a licensed shooting range — and imposes a criminal background check on ammunition purchases and requires dealers to keep detailed records of who purchased how much ammo at any given time.
The bill also imposes a 14-day waiting period when purchasing a firearm, ostensibly to allow for the Oregon State Police to conduct a preliminary investigation on would-be gun buyers before the standard FBI background check is conducted.
The proposed law was absolutely slammed by Republican state Rep. Bill Post, who suggested in a media release that SB 501 would violate both the U.S. Constitution as well as the Oregon Constitution’s protection of gun rights, and said the arbitrary caps on ammunition magazines and purchases would prove detrimental to both hunters and avid target shooters.
With specific regard to the five-round limit on ammunition capacity, Post said, “That means your old six-shot revolver would be required to be turned in or destroyed.” He further vowed to do everything in his power to derail this ludicrous gun control legislation, and said, “Gun control only helps the lawless and I won’t stand for it.”
In line with what Post said, criminal gun owners won’t care one bit about this new gun control law, if passed, as they by their very nature ignore the rule of law.
Meanwhile, the good gun-owning citizens of Oregon who try to abide by the laws will find their rights have been greatly infringed upon as they have been left all but defenseless against the capricious dictates of an increasingly authoritarian leftist state, not to mention the well-armed criminals who won’t be destroying or turning in their “large capacity magazines.”
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