Gun-grabbing advocates hit a bull’s-eye in Oregon. A judge just ruled that the state’s new gun control law, which an Oregon sheriff called “a terrible law for gunowners, crime victims, and public safety,” is constitutional.
Our sister site, Townhall, reported July 17 on last week’s worrying decision, calling the gun law — passed by a narrow margin in 2022 by Oregon voters — “extreme.” U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut reportedly claimed that large-capacity gun magazines “are not commonly used for self-defense, and are therefore not protected by the Second Amendment.” She justified this mystifying logic by asserting the Second Amendment “allows governments to ensure that only law-abiding, responsible citizens keep and bear arms.” Which doesn’t seem to be any sort of explanation for new restrictions on legal firearms.
Related: West Coast, Messed Coast™: The Left’s Unconstitutional Assault on Guns
Measure 114 puts many new restrictions on Oregonians’ firearms, including “permit-to-purchase” guidelines. Immergut claimed that Measure 114 accords with “the nation’s history and tradition of regulating uniquely dangerous features of weapons and firearms to protect public safety.” Considering the Founding Fathers used the most powerful weapons they could get their hands on to start, fight, and win the Revolution, the judge’s assertion seems questionable.
Townhall previously covered how Measure 114 would require a permit and hands-on safety training and fingerprinting provided by law enforcement to buy a gun. In addition, the law prohibits the sale, transfer, or import of gun magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammo. It would not be illegal to own a gun without a permit, but a permit would be required by law to purchase one.
Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan previously criticized the legislation in December. “We’ve seen the statistics that most crimes involving guns that criminals commit, they’re not obtaining those firearms legally anyway,” Duncan said. She also stated she “can’t put handcuffs on someone knowing that there is this black cloud around the constitutionality of that magazine capacity limit.” Ultimately, the sheriff called Measure 114 “poorly written” and (on Facebook) “a terrible law for gunowners, crime victims, and public safety.”
The Founders recognized that the precious rights of the First Amendment depend on the Second Amendment. Gun control laws don’t just undermine the right to keep and bear arms, they put all other U.S. rights and liberties at risk.
“A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined,” George Washington insisted. “The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed,” Noah Webster reflected with satisfaction.
Thomas Jefferson was particularly insistent that gun control does more harm than good: “[Such laws] disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”
But considering that gun-grabbing Democrats frequently support soft-on-crime policies that favor violent criminals, it would seem that putting law-abiding citizens at risk does not cause them a moment’s concern.
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