In Oregon, Bar Your Neighbor From Buying Guns

Right from the annals of horrible ideas comes a recent bill which has been introduced into the Oregon legislature which would effectively allow a person who suspects another person of being “mentally unstable” to be barred from purchasing a firearm.  Surely, you may ask, there must be some substantiation of such a claim?  After all, I can’t claim my next door neighbor is a witch or an alien.  Why should I be allowed to affect that person’s life and liberty in having his access to firearms restricted without some proof that he is a danger to himself or others?

Well, that is PRECISELY what Oregon residents may be facing in the general assembly.  According to a draft of LC 250, a person may report another person on suspicion of mental illness and be absolutely immune from civil liability.  The bill was drafted on the 6th of January of this year and it will be a horror show if it makes it through.

The department may not notify the person:

• Of the existence of the hold unless the person attempts to purchase a firearm.
• Of the date of expiration of the hold.
• Of the identity of the reporter.

A person who makes a report is “immune from civil liability for making the report as long as the report is made in good faith.”  Effectively, you can report anyone for any reason whatsoever and the Department of State Police Firearms Unit can effectively sever that person’s ability to purchase a firearm without needing to even notify him or her that such a bar has been placed.  But don’t worry, the department will still record it on that person’s permanent record.

Well, how do you get it removed?!

A person described in subsection (1) of this section may obtain documentation from a health care provider that the person is not a danger to self or others and provide documentation to the Department of State Police Firearms Unit.  Upon receipt of the documentation, the department shall cause the firearm purchase hold to be removed.

Seems simple (if unnecessary), right?  Wrong.

In the State of Hawaii, applicants for concealed carry permits are being forced to seek a medical professional to sign off and attest to their mental well-being.  They’re finding that not only will insurance not pay for such an appointment, most medical professionals will not sign such a document due to the implicit liability that would place on their careers!

So, not only can anyone report on another person without scrutiny — those reports will be taken as pure fact and treated as excuse to bar a person from obtaining firearms for an indeterminate period of time, creating a permanent record and probably some utter embarrassment at the gun shop when his or her request is denied.

There’s a lot of great possibilities for this.

• Got an ex that you just don’t like?  Report her!
• Have a neighbor who lets his dog urinate on your front lawn?  Report him!
• Don’t like the look of somebody walking down the street?  Report him!

It’s so easy.  You can just go around creating oodles of permanent records on otherwise law-abiding citizens without any civil liability whatsoever.

But, you need to make the reports in good faith!

Hahahahahaha!  You need to effectively PROVE someone is not acting in good faith in order to support that case.  You like that word — PROOF!  Evidence.  You know, the kind you can’t just “have a funny feeling about” but the kind you have to present in a court of law and under oath.

Anyhow, the bill still has to make it through the Oregon legislature before it’s approved.  Regardless of whether it does or does not, the people that wrote this garbage should certainly be out of a job.