Kevin Starrett

No matter where you stand on guns, the simple fact is someday, somewhere, you may have to protect yourself. And you cannot rely on the police. Under Ballot Measure 114, you could literally wait forever for permission to purchase a home defense firearm.

The measure requires a “class” with live fire training before a person can apply for a permit to purchase a firearm. There are virtually no facilities that will be available for this training. For first time gun buyers, this could well require that you have a gun before you can get a permit to buy a gun.

The measure only allows those approved by police to provide the required “training” to apply for a permit. Police in Oregon are underfunded and understaffed. There is no plan in place to actually provide any training and virtually no police have the facilities to provide classes. Police in urban areas are already not responding to most crimes. Police in rural areas rarely have the facilities for the required class.

The “permitting agent” can demand “any additional information” to issue the permit, opening up endless opportunities for abuses.

The Oregon State Sheriffs’ Association has estimated that if a person somehow could complete the required training, the permitting process would cost sheriffs almost $40 million annually. There is nothing in the measure that provides funding, and the fees included would not come close to covering the costs. The estimate of costs to local police is $51.2 million the first year and $47.5 million in subsequent years.

While the measure caps the cost for a permit, there are no caps on the costs for the required training, which is unlikely to be available. The measure requires that a sheriff or local police department issue a permit within 30 days after a background check has been completed by the Oregon State Police. But there is no limit on how long the state police can take to complete the background check and no penalties if they do not complete it. There are no estimates of the cost of these checks to the state police. The “permit” does not even authorize you to purchase a firearm. It only allows you to ask for permission a second time when you actually try to make the purchase. And once again, the state police can literally take forever.

The measure requires a public list of persons who attempt to purchase firearms. Victims of domestic violence will be at risk for all their private information being made public along with their efforts to purchase a firearm for self-defense.

The measure creates a whole new category of victimless crimes at a time when the police are grossly underfunded and real criminals are being released onto our streets.

M114 removes the one safeguard that protects gun buyers if the state police do not complete their background check.

State and federal law allow the transfer of a firearm if the state police don’t complete a background check in three business days. This measure removes that safeguard. So a single mom with threats against her and her children could literally wait forever to get permission to get a home defense firearm.

The ballot measure flatly outlaws almost all home defense shotguns, but it also outlaws the most common shotguns used for trap and skeet events. Many of the people competing in these safe and sanctioned events are young people who were introduced to safe gun handling through these competitions. Please see stop114.com for more information.