Oregon gun owners have an uphill battle with recent assaults to freedom. Several bills have been introduced that would basically abolish any civilian militia, put those seeking so-called “safe storage” solutions into a bind on having their firearm(s) returned, and more. Groups and citizens are speaking out and there’s alleged to be some deference given to organizations like Moms Demand Action.

Last week Oregon Firearms Federation reported that there were two bills that were being considered by the senate and House Judiciary respectively. The pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 947 and House Bill 3884, the Federation says, faced opposition from Second Amendment activists, with testimonies on SB 947 being 100 percent against its passage.

When testifying recently, Oregon native and Second Amendment activist, Derek LeBlanc highlighted something that he thinks is an issue within the state. LeBlanc fears that the Oregon lawmakers are aligning themselves too much with the “radical fringe element” of Moms Demand Action, and not listening to their actual constituents.

“They represent special interests. And the problem that we're having here in Oregon is there's outside influence that's influencing our elections, our politicians up here in Salem,” Leblanc said during his testimony. “And so I'd like to bring that to your attention and part of of this, this bomb that I got from them is, is everyone that's here in the red shirts, everybody that's going to testify online, they actually have to submit their testimony to somebody outside of the state for approval before they can actually testify in this committee. And I think that's wrong. And I think as Oregon gun owners, we have the right to have our voices be heard, and that's why we're here today. And so we're not the problem here, we're here part of the solution.”

The alleged preferential treatment given to “our friends on the other side,” as LeBlanc called them during his testimony, was also parroted within recent Federation correspondence. An email from the Oregon Firearms Federation observed on April 7 that “all gun bills that were scheduled to be heard or in ‘work sessions’ were postponed, many till tomorrow.”

“That fact that they were taken off today’s schedule and postponed for a day or two is not really the interesting part,” the Federation said. “The interesting part is that the anti-gunners all seemed to know while people coming to testify against them did not.”

Much like LeBlanc, Federation leadership seems skeptical that the voices of Oregonaians are being heard, or perhaps observing that they’re being ignored – while citizens attempt to voice their contempt towards the impending freedom-limiting bills.

“In a recent interview on KPNW, House Republican Leader Christine Drazan blamed the voters for these bills moving forward saying they need to ‘make their voices heard,’” the Federation said. “But as noted above, voters made their voices heard when 100% of them opposed SB 947 and it passed with no Democrat voting against it. Furthermore Democrats are using ‘gut and stuff’ tactics to change the bills at the very last minute so the public doesn’t even know what will be in the bills until it’s too late.”

Is this a function of the people not speaking up? The Federation thinks it's worse than that, stating: “The reality is, voters are not being heard and it’s not because they are not speaking. It’s because they are being ignored.”

In another update from the Federation, they noted the following on April 8:

As expected, today the House Judiciary Committee passed HB 3075 and HB 3076.

HB 3075, as amended, implements the restrictions of MZ 114 but drastically jacks up the fees.

The Chair of the Committee called the massive increase in fees a “technical fix” and said the bill was needed because we have to have background checks, something we have had for generations.

HB 3076, as amended, creates absurd and draconian new restrictions on gun dealers in an effort to shut down as many firearms businesses as possible. However the new rules also apply to home based FFL’s and will apply at gun shows where the requirements will be impossible to comply with.

Together these bills will make it virtually impossible to purchase firearms in Oregon.

Whatever is going on in Oregon and whether or not special interest groups are getting preferential treatment is not fully realized. What’s unfortunate though is there are activists speaking out and much like many other jurisdictions in the U.S. that don’t respect liberty, the lawmakers seemingly are unilaterally ignoring them. The passage of these measures out of committee are probable foreshadowing of the rest cruising on their way into enactment.

This is a developing story and updates will be issued when appropriate.