Oregon Voters Narrowly OK Restrictive Gun Control Measure Creating ‘Database’ of Gunowners
Bronson Winslow /
Oregon voters approved a ballot question that is considered one of the most restrictive gun control measures in the country.
Known as Measure 114, the ballot question was approved 51% to 49%, with 77% of the vote counted, The Oregonian reported early Wednesday. Though the results were close with just over three-fourths of the vote tallied, the remaining counties of Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas all heavily favor the measure.
Measure 114, often referred to as the Reduction of Gun Violence Act, will require background checks, firearm training, fingerprint collection, and a permit to purchase any firearm. Alongside the measure’s heightened restrictions, the National Rifle Association said it believes the ambiguous language fails to safeguard gun owner information by creating a searchable database of gun owners.
“The ballot measure gives the power to each permit issuing department to annually publish ‘any additional information that it determines would be helpful’ to the process. That information includes names, addresses, and a whole host of additional personal information that would be released to the public,” NRA spokesperson Lars Dalseide previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“This ballot measure fails to safeguard law-abiding gun owners’ personal information—and, by proxy, information of families, friends, and employers—[from] being made public. Failing to include those safeguards puts lives and property at risk,” Dalseide said.
Currently, California maintains a database for owners of concealed carry permits, but Oregon’s Reduction of Gun Violence Act will place every gun owner in a database. The contents of California’s database was leaked in June, and gun rights advocates have argued that centralized gun databases lead to an abuse of power.
“This measure will not make our community safer. It will put our communities at greater risk for violence because it requires that every sheriff’s office and police agency divert scarce public safety resources to background systems that already exist,” Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson said in a video statement, Fox News reported.
Oregon already requires background checks for gun owners, but the measure approved by voters will add a gun safety course regulated by police and restrict magazine capacity to 10 rounds. In total, the new measure will cost the state approximately $49 million annually, according to Fox News.
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