Oregon Leftists Brag About New Gun Control Law

The red wave in Oregon didn’t happen for the most part, though Republicans took a House seat here and there and performed well in the more rural, western part of the state as usual. The hype surrounding the possibility that Democrat Tina Kotek could be defeated, turning the Governor’s Mansion red, fizzled in the end. Another piece of bad news turned up in a ballot measure that didn’t draw all that much attention on the national level. Measure 114 passed on election day, ushering in a new round of gun control restrictions and requirements. NBC News launched into a celebration of this “victory” in which they bemoaned the rising number of deaths involving firearms in recent years while claiming (without evidence) that this new law in Oregon would do something about it.

In this climate, voters in Oregon have fought back. Heading into the midterm elections, voters took it upon themselves to strengthen gun laws by proposing Measure 114, a ballot initiative that requires a background check, a license and safety training to buy firearms in the state. The measure also prohibits large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Oregon’s measure is particularly important because Congress, the courts and many state legislatures have done so little to contain the violence. Meanwhile, the number of gun deaths in the United States has skyrocketed — in fact, our analysis of the data shows that guns drove a recent spike in homicides and suicides…

Given the Supreme Court’s expansion of Americans’ right to own guns, it can be frustrating to consider what preventive steps are possible. The Oregon referendum, however, is an example of how laws can prevent gun violence. Firearm purchaser licensing, as contained in the ballot measure, is one of the most effective policies at reducing gun deaths.

First of all, there’s nothing really unique or groundbreaking about this measure when compared to similar proposals in other liberal states. They are requiring all purchasers of firearms to complete a background check (which everyone already had to do anyway) and complete mandatory gun safety training before being able to obtain a license to own a gun. It also limits the size of magazines to ten rounds of ammunition.

What Measure 114 really does is make it more time-consuming, expensive, and laborious for lawful residents to legally obtain a firearm. NBC goes to great lengths to document how many gun-related deaths have been recorded in the country of late, concluding that Oregon’s law will impact those statistics in a positive way.

As usual, what’s entirely missing in this liberal “analysis” is any sort of context or even a nod to the reality of gun crime in the United States. Yes, more people are getting shot. That’s only one facet of the rising violent crime rates we’ve been seeing, primarily in urban areas. And the NBC report conveniently ignores the fact that the vast, vast majority of the people being shot are the victims of criminals who could never pass a background check and get their guns on the black or gray markets.

Also ignored in this report is the reality that lower-income minority citizens are disproportionately the victims of these gun crimes. And by making it harder for the law-abiding to obtain a firearm, you’re making it hard for them to defend themselves if such a thing happens to them.

Unfortunately, the voters of Oregon largely decided to stick with the status quo, electing yet another round of liberal Democrats and working to infringe their own Second Amendment rights. We’ll see how that plays out in the years to come, but history shows us that this new law will not turn out to be some sort of rainbow bridge to the society of love and light that they imagine it to be. And the sad reality is that they have nobody to blame but themselves.

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