This Oregon Gun Control Proposal Is One Second Amendment Fans Can Actually Support

Everybody's got an idea about how to reduce violent crime, and some of those ideas are better than others. Personally, I'm all for putting violent criminals behind bars, cracking down on repeat offenders, and making sure that people have the ability to protect themselves when the criminal justice system fails to keep us safe.

Others have a different approach. They'd prefer to make it harder for peaceable Americans to own a gun in the first place, apparently believing that if we just put enough restrictions on the books, criminals will eventually get the message and start obeying the law.

One Oregon resident has taken that philosophy to its logical conclusion, offering up a laundry list of restrictions that she believes would reduce gun violence. And while I disagree with most of her proposals, there's one suggestion that I'm surprisingly enthusiastic about. In fact, I'd love to see Oregon lawmakers take her advice. I just don't think she'd be very happy with the results.

Let's take a look at the rest of her proposal, which was recently published in The Oregonian.

Are there good reasons to own a gun? Sure; and we need to make sure that gun owners actually have those reasons. 

Enjoy shooting? Fine. Leave your gun at the range.

Enjoy hunting? Then pass classes and register your guns.

Want to kill people? Hard no.

 

Get guns illegally? Impose severe penalties, extending to anyone who aids and abets.

Regulate gun ownership as much as we do women’s bodies and the number of gun deaths will be reduced.

Now, I don't normally bother commenting on letters to the editor, any more than I'll focus on a tweet from some rando on X with 14 followers, but I'm making an exception in this case because I suspect that this attitude is pretty common in left-leaning parts of Oregon like Portland. 

There are several obvious problems with this point of view, at least when it comes to compliance with the Constitution. First, the government doesn't get to decide if we have a good enough reason to own a firearm. It's a right, not a privilege. 

And that right encompasses the ability to both keep a gun in the home and to carry one in public, which takes leaving guns at the range off the table. 

Most states do require passing a hunter education course before you can get a hunting license, but what does registering your guns have to do with hunting? In fact, what does registering your guns have to do with fighting crime? 

I'm fine with imposing severe penalties for getting guns illegally, so long as there are no unconstitutional barriers in place when it comes to legally acquiring one. 

Regulating gun ownership as much as we do women's bodies? I'm all in favor of that too, but I suspect that's not really what the letter writer wants. Why? 

Well, let's take a look at Oregon's laws regarding abortion. This language comes directly from the Oregon Health Authority. 

• Abortion is legal in Oregon.
• You do not need to be a resident of Oregon or a U.S. citizen to get abortion services in Oregon.
• Oregon has no restrictions on abortions based on how far along in pregnancy you are.
• There are also no required waiting periods before receiving an abortion.
• There are no restrictions on getting medication abortion pills by mail within Oregon. 

So, essentially there are no regulations on adult women when it comes to their access to abortion. What about minors? 

Minors who are 15 years and older can consent to medical services, including abortion services, without parental/guardian consent (ORS 109.640(3), as amended by Oregon Laws 2023, Chapter 228, Section 8).

Minors under the age of 15 can consent to an abortion without parental/guardian consent only in the following circumstances: 

• If the health care provider reasonably believes that involving the minor’s parent/guardian may result in the physical or emotional abuse or the neglect of the minor.
• If the health care provider believes that requiring consent of the minor’s parent/guardian would not be in the minor’s best interest. In this circumstance, the health care provider is required to seek the agreement of another health care provider in a separate medical practice or facility. (ORS 109.640(2)(b), as amended by Oregon Laws 2023, Chapter 228, Section 8).

If we regulated gun ownership as much as Oregon regulates women's bodies, a 15-year-old could walk into a gun store and purchase a firearm without parental consent. In fact, a 12-year-old could do the same, so long as the gun store owner believes that involving the parent or guardian might result in physical or emotional abuse. 

There is no state registry of who has had an abortion, so a gun registry would be off the table. There are no waiting periods for abortion services. There is no "permit to purchase" an abortion. No background checks are performed. There are no limits on how many abortions a woman can have. You can even have an abortion pill mailed directly to your home if you'd like. 

Now, I doubt the author of this letter actually wants 15-year-olds buying handguns without their parents' permission, or gun stores shipping firearms directly to customers' homes without background checks. My guess is that she simply assumes abortion is heavily regulated everywhere, and that imposing similar restrictions on gun ownership would be a good thing.

The letter writer wants the government to decide who has a good enough reason to own a gun, where those guns can be kept, and what hoops someone must jump through before exercising a constitutional right. But when it comes to abortion, Oregon lawmakers have largely rejected the notion that the government should be making those decisions for individuals.

There are important legal and practical differences between abortion and firearm ownership, of course, but I'm not the one who suggested we treat them the same. And if the principle is that the government shouldn't impose unnecessary barriers between Americans and the exercise of their rights, then that principle can't disappear the moment we start talking about the Second Amendment.

I'm happy to entertain the idea of regulating gun ownership the way Oregon regulates abortion. I just have a sneaking suspicion that if the letter writer ever got her wish, she'd be among the first to demand that lawmakers change the rules.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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