PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
3 Oregon lawmakers face recall efforts over bill on background checks for gun sales :: 05/08/2015
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Gun rights advocates say the fight against Senate bill 941 is just heating up. Efforts are underway to recall the lawmakers who supported the bill to expand background checks in Oregon to include gun sales and transfers.
Members of the Executive Club, a conservative rights group, met Wednesday to discuss a wide range of topics. Chief among them, what they are going to do to fight Senate Bill 941.
The bill has already already won approval in the Oregon House and Senate. Governor Kate Brown has said she'll sign it.
But no one at an Executive Club meeting Wednesday night was admitting defeat. The evening's featured speaker was Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation - a group dedicated to protecting the second amendment
He says SB 941, which expands background checks in Oregon to include gun sales and transfers, was misguided from the start.
"They almost universally passed it. Not a single republican voted for it, only one democrat in the senate opposed it and only three democrats in the house opposed it," Starrett said.
So he fully supports various recall efforts, including one that aims to remove Senator Chuck Riley, and Representatives Susan McLain and Val Hoyle, from office.
Starrett admits the effort won't stop this bill from reaching the governor's desk, but hopes it serves as a warning to other lawmakers down the line.
"Part of the intent of this is to send a message to other legislators that there is going to be a response," Starrett said.
When asked for comment, Senator Riley defended his vote saying in part, "80% of the voters in my district - and across the nation - support background checks on gun sales so guns don't get into the hands of criminals and the mentally ill."
Representative McLain told added, "I believe that this bill will save lives by ensuring that this gaping loophole isn't used to put guns into the hands of criminals, domestic abusers, and people with severe mental illness."
KATU hasn't heard back from Representative Hoyle.
