One look at the proposed handgun ordinance for the City of Portland by Mayor Sam Adams gives one the impression that in the Rose City, they drink the same Kool Aid as do mayors in Seattle.
Adams is out with a proposal to adopt a “sweeping new gun regulation” that will slap penalties on gun owners who do not promptly report lost or stolen guns, and provide police with the serial number of the missing firearm. It also would impose a curfew on juveniles who violate gun laws, and make it illegal to not control access to firearms by minors. He announced the plan with a Friday press release.
In pandering that last one, the mayor says his measure would “create a new crime.” This is the earmark of gun control laws. They “create crimes” in order to control firearm access by private citizens. It’s simple really, as simple as the stroke of a pen. Set a standard and anyone who does not meet that standard is suddenly a criminal.
The Oregon Firearms Federation is furious about the Adams package, and has taken off the gloves.
In his press release, Mayor Adams declares that “Changes to federal and state gun laws are needed.” Gun rights advocates might respond by suggesting that the major change in gun laws that this country needs is sweeping repeal of most of them. Failing that, the next option is what the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation is doing. They are suing to overturn such laws in court, all over the map. Likewise, the National Rifle Association is involved in some legal actions, and one could conclude there is much meaning in SAF’s new slogan: “Restoring gun rights, one lawsuit at a time.”
SAF has lawsuits filed in New York, Maryland, North Carolina and Chicago. A group in Maryland contributed $10,000 to the SAF legal effort in that state, which this column discussed here, and more recently, the New York-based Shooters Committee On Political Education (SCOPE) donated $5,000 to the foundation.
Adams proudly acknowledges he is a founding member of the anti-gun Mayors Against Illegal Guns, created by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino. Former Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was also a founding member of that group.
The Adams measure would exempt Oregonians who possess valid concealed carry licenses, but there appears little doubt among Beaver State gun rights activists that the entire plan is illegal under Oregon’s state preemption statute. This is similar in spirit and wording to Washington’s model preemption statute adopted more than 25 years ago.
Washingtonians will recall Nickels as a shill for Washington CeaseFire, and in Portland, Adams appears to be carrying that torch willingly, noting in his Friday press release, “At the state level, Ceasefire Oregon is advocating for common-sense gun safety laws. The Brady Campaign is working on gun education and lobbying on the national level.”
Gun education? The only genuine gun education programs with which this column is familiar are those established and proven over the years by the NRA. Show us the network of firearms instructors certified by the Brady Campaign. Show us the lesson plans developed by the Brady Campaign for firearms safety courses that cover such subjects as home firearm safety, personal protection and even law enforcement training. Show us the instructor training workshops conducted by the anti-gun crowd. The NRA has all of that and more, and that organization has trained millions of Americans over the years in the proper use and handling of firearms. While the NRA has championed firearm safety, the shooting sports, gun collecting and firearm civil rights, Ceasefire groups and the Brady Camp have championed public disarmament, and to say otherwise is a lie.
In the gun prohibitionist camp, gun “safety” is new labeling applied to an old agenda: gun control. The only lesson they want to teach is that “guns are bad.” They have battled in court against Second Amendment affirmation. They have defended unconstitutional gun laws in Washington, D.C. and Chicago as “sensible.”
Like Adams, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn would erode state preemption and assume authority to set his own gun laws. There is nothing sensible, or even remotely safe, about that.
Adams wants to hear from the public about his proposal. He can be e-mailed at:
Comments
It fascinates me, the way a slow-motion video of a car wreck fascinates, that people accept the idea that the Second Amendment was just words for all that time between the ratification of the Constitution and its Bill of Rights by the existing states, until the Supreme Court this summer, by a margin of 5-4, said the right the Second Amendment describes does indeed exist -- as a rationed privilege, subject to federal, state and local law, void where prohibited.
It is more fascinating, the arrogance of mayors and their minions, who think they know better than the Founders, the Supreme Court Four who MAY understand the concept of an unalienable right, and the state legislators who after all make the laws for their entire state, wrong or right.
If cities can opt out of state laws they disagree with, residents of those cities should opt out of city laws that allow less freedom than their own state does.
I still think the best story on the subject of gun rights is this one:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3020004/do_felons_have_the_righ...
But three cheers to Alan Gotc2tlieb and his Second Amendment Foundation!
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