By Jack Burns
A showdown is brewing in the State of Oregon following gun control advocates’ proposed assault weapons ban called Initiative Proposition 43 (IP43). Under the guise of “gun control” and “safety of our children,” proponents of the measure aim to effectively ban all weapons produced since the Civil War. But several counties are pushing back with their own Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances.
Klamath and Deschutes Counties are attempting to push back against the ordinance by passing their own county-wide ordinances to disallow the county sheriff from enforcing any state or federal law which would infringe on county residents’ rights to keep and bear arms. It’s effectively a ban on gun bans.
Klamath County resident Timothy Harris filed a petition titled K-18-1 to:
Preserve the right of the People of, on and in Klamath County to:
Keep and bear arms as originally understood; in self-defense and preservation, and in defense of one’s community and country.
Freely manufacture, transfer, sell and buy firearms, firearm accessories and ammunition, which are designed primarily for the same purposes.
Deschutes County resident Jerrad Robinson filed a similar Second Amendment Protection ordinance. Another ordinance was filed in Columbia County. All three ordinances would ban local law enforcement from enforcing State or Federal laws which would essentially ban all semi-automatic firearms under the proposed state ban, IP43.
Oregon’s IP43 is being billed as an “assault weapons” ban, something even gun owners might support. But in essence, the proposed ban would make illegal nearly all semi-automatic weapons, make criminals out of Oregon residents who prefer to hold on to their guns, and put fear in others who refuse to register their firearms with local law enforcement.
Representative Bill Post, a Republican, is apparently attempting to sound the warning alarm for residents about the severity of the law and the gun confiscation implications which will result from the passage of IP43 currently being planned for the November ballot. He said:
This is completely out of hand — I couldn’t believe it. I’ve been told so many times by people in favor of gun control: ‘no one is coming to take your guns.’ This (IP43) explicitly comes for your guns…This got zero comment or help from anybody in Oregon’s Democratic leadership. The reason they’re not supporting this is that they’re not stupid. They know this would bring out the greatest red (Republican) wave of votes in Oregon history…We must do something. But this is crazy.
The National Rifle Association’s spokesperson Lars Dalseide said:
This ballot initiative classifies practically every semi-automatic firearm as an assault weapon – rifles, shotguns, and even handguns. These are firearms you’ll find in every gun store in America. Should this pass then you’ll have to choose between surrendering your only means of self-protection or registering them with the authorities. Then, when the next ballot initiative passes, they’ll know exactly what you have, where it is, and come to take it. Maybe now when we say they’re coming for you’re [sic] guns you’ll believe us.
The county measures intended to preserve county residents’ rights to keep the firearms they own are not likely to be able to stand up in court if IP43 is passed in November. Just as IP43 would make criminals out of law abiding citizens across the State of Oregon, so, too, would the counties’ Second Amendment Preservation ordinances make criminals out of duly elected law enforcement officials such as sheriffs.
Few sheriffs, even if the county ordinances pass in response to IP43, would dare to place their liberty and career on the line to comply with a local ordinance. Rather, they would likely cow tow to state and federal laws and begin enforcing the new law.
America seems to be prisoners of their own devices. Just as the so-called War on Drugs has made criminals out of citizens who chose to use a plant to heal themselves, the War on Guns make criminals out of citizens who choose to flex their rights and hold onto their guns.
As TFTP reported in April, one Illinois town, Deerfield, already passed a gun grabbing local ordinance which gave its citizens 60 days to turn in their guns or face $1000 fines per gun per day. Now, it seems, an entire state, the State of Oregon, is attempting to pass its own gun grabbing scheme (IP43), and is using fake promises to do so, saying it will keep kids safe by banning guns.
Banning guns does not keep citizens safe. London has a near total gun ban yet murders, have since surpassed New York City’s crime rates.
Banning guns does not keep citizens safe. Banning government from making criminals out of law-abiding citizens, however, does keep citizens safe. When law enforcement sets its sights on drug users and those who are impoverished, citizens not only lose their freedom, they lose their wealth as well. Civil asset forfeiture is often used to take wealth from those convicted under the War on Drugs, and those who are impoverished. If a War on Guns is launched in the U.S., citizens will lose much more than their semi-automatic weapons. They will lose safety, freedom, and assets to a government all too eager to take it from them.
TFTP recently spoke with a Tennessee man who was convicted of dealing marijuana. He said the FBI, the DEA, and local law enforcement kicked in his door, pocketed over 40,000 dollars in cash, and, as part of his plea deal, forced him to pay the government over $200,000 in a promissory note, all because he was attempting to help people treat their illnesses with a plant.
Not only did they take nearly all of his possessions, label him a felon for life, but they have placed him into a state-sponsored form of indentured servitude for life. He fears revealing his identity for worries he will again be targeted.
State officials will likely do the same to individuals who attempt to keep their weapons—their only form of self-protection under the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. If they get away with it in Oregon, they will likely get away with it all across the so-called Land of the Free.
When a small Oregon rural town of 20,000 people endures a mass shooting at its community college, then yes, some sort of gun control must be instituted just for safety’s sake. All of this foolishness concerning the right of the people to hold assault weapons is so much obfuscation. It was not guaranteed by the Constitution, not at all. In fact there were no assault weapons in the 1700s and the Amendment itself clearly references militias, which somehow has been dismissed as if the words weren’t even there.
What an idiot,or troll, you are. The militia is supposed to be composed of the general public itself; that is all able-bodied men. A posse that the sheriff can use. We are not supposed to have a standing army other than civilians. If you weren’t so damn ignorant we would not be having this conversation. I realize that you have been deliberately educated stupid by the communist’s government schools and their boobtube propaganda. Dear God, I pray that you please protect us from idiots like this one.
“Idiot” maybe, but I’m not ignorant and I’m not mistaken. Only gun crazy reprobates like you come up with foolish rationales for murder weapons in everyone’s hands. You Sir, and those like you are destroying the US from the inside. You don’t need foreign enemies, you are doing a very good job of making the US unlivable by yourself! I just shake my head at the perversity of those who can’t see the forest for the trees!
Right back at you. Your government was overthrown back during the American Civil War. Communists have already taken up positions in ‘your’ government. They are now working on taking away our last means of defense with idiots like you helping. Most of these shootings are staged with the exact purpose of getting idiots like you screaming for gun control.
Sadly, it may not really matter anymore. Our puny guns are no match for theirs and their bombs, drones, lasers, etc. along with their control over the propaganda machine.
This country is already dead/ doomed.
The programming to which you have succumbed to is astounding.
First, you are convinced that firearms are nothing but ‘assault weapons’ which is a politically contrived term to make them seem more scary. It started with “assault rifle” and has now morphed to include almost anything with a trigger. It blindly implies that guns are offensive tools, or as you put it, murder weapons. They are not. They are defensive tools. That is their purpose. Did you ever hear about the millions of defensive gun uses that happen every year in America? Probably not and you probably wouldn’t care. These are real lives that are saved every single day because of private gun ownership. Again, you probably don’t care.
Second, you claim their were no assault weapons in the 1700s. Yes, their were no ARs and no Glocks. No shit. I’m sure their were no gun murders either. The 2nd Amendment codifies the necessity of militias, and by extension, of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms. You can not wish this fact or this language away. The founders of America [which you apparently love as much as I do] had the intelligence and wisdom to know that self-defense must be in the hands of the individual and not the State.. to protect from murderous individuals as well as the State. If we give up that personal responsibility and freedom we will be at the mercy of anyone with evil intent and the power to see those intentions through. That’s right, the only ones left with guns. Which is exactly what you want. It is you who are a danger to our nation with these utopian notions. I wish I could send you back to the 1700s. For good.
Evil people will do evil things. Mass shootings etc. truly suck and it’s a sad thing to behold. What amazes me is that you would take away my right to defend myself and my family from such madmen away from me. Gun deaths, statistically, are not an epidemic despite whatever brainwashing is happening to you. Far more deaths occur from cars [assault vehicles], pharmaceutical complications [assault drugs], and poor health habits [assault burgers]. You couldn’t care less about these statistics because they do not flash red on your daily news feed, have less emotional gravitas, and, basically, seem like less-scary ways to die.
We are all going to die because of something. I will choose to die standing up. You apparently have chosen to take anything lying down. Have a great day.
How can anyone have a nice day in the perverse, dysfunctional, destructive mess you and your ilk have made of the country? You were joking when you said that, but it wasn’t funny. You seem to think that guns, yes, they are murder weapons, they kill after all, are God’s gift to mankind, Wrong! Guns simply allow more murders to take place faster, than if you had a knife, sword or whatever. If guns protected your freedom you wouldn’t be in such a mess right now. You wouldn’t have brutal police breaking down doors and shooting people, many of whom do not have guns, hear that, no guns! You wouldn’t have to produce your “papers” at every street corner, In the US today, dead children are the price of your fetish for guns and I’m very sure you agree that, as Madeline said “we think its worth it”! Sorry but your arguments are totally useless and beyond foolish.
You fail to conceive a very basic point. I and my ‘ilk’ are not the
problem. I do not have a gun fetish. Your attempt to put words in my
mouth and link me and every lawful gun owner to dead children is beyond pathetic. I and my ‘ilk’ are responsible gun owners with a
strong moral constitution and a sense of duty to protect innocent lives.
Sometimes it takes a gun to do that. Take for instance the Parkland
incident – assuming it was real – what do you think the people in that
school were praying for when everything went down? Better gun control
laws? Most likely they were praying for the police [i.e. a good guy with
a gun] to step in as quickly as possible. A licensed CCW citizen would
have been equally welcomed. I agree that guns make it easier for
evildoers to inflict more damage than some other tool but you simply can
not legislate away crazy. A madman will find a way.. with a car or a
van.. to carry out their blood lust. Someone has to be there to stop
them. The police are not, and certainly should not be, the only line of
defense. The police don’t even have a sworn duty to protect you. And for
the record not all killing is murder. Self-defense does not qualify. A
gun does not turn it’s owner into a homicidal whackjob. You’re scared of
guns – I get it – but you and your ilk’s attempt to demonize and strip
Americans’ right to protect themselves [and maybe even you someday] will
be the final nail in the coffin of this great nation. How do you think
this nation even got it’s independence so that you and I could have the
freedom to do exactly what we’re doing right now? We have allowed the
State enough power and you want to give it more. If you could see past
the immediate fearmongering you would be able to see that you are being
played – and you would see that the need for firearms to once again
protect our [and your] freedom is coming in the very near future. So go
ahead and have the last word. For I care not.
Sensible gun laws prevent mass murders and they don’t strip gun owners of their dangerous toys. They just make sure that the wrong individuals don’t get to play with them. Yes, wrong, implies former convicts, mental patients and terrorists!
There are laws against harming folks already on the books.
Guns just might keep enemies at bay.
The NRA has increased it’s member ship exponentially since the children rallied, whom most were adults.