HB 3200: Grabbing MORE Than Guns

February 25, 2013

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HB 3200In one of the most sweeping attacks on civil rights in memory in the state of Oregon, 15 state legislators are sponsoring a bill that manages to maul the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights, all over an irrational fear of an inanimate object.

House Bill 3200 calls for new, secretive searches of your homes—in violation of the Fourth Amendment, limits how often you may use your rights—in violation of the First Amendment, forces you to declare items you currently own are illegal—a violation of the Fifth Amendment, forces you to keep those items under wraps and makes otherwise innocent citizens subject to a quarter million dollar fine and prison time. It does so without due process or a warrant.

 The 15 Democrat lawmakers, Senators Ginny Burdick, Rod Monroe, Mark Hass, Jackie Dingfelder, Laurie Monnes Anderson, Chip Shields, Elizabeth Steiner Hayward and Representatives Jules Bailey, Mitch Greenlick, Michael Dembrow, Carolyn Tomei, Lew Frederick, Tobias Read, Peter Buckley and Jeff Reardon have all gleefully countenanced the destruction of these basic civil rights in service of their irrational fear of guns and an obvious disdain of the Second Amendment.

HB 3200 WHO SPONSORED IT

 Furthermore, HB 3200 was given a hearing mere hours after Democrat legislative leadership promised bills to limit “assault weapons” and certain sized magazines would die in the legislature. They lied.

 The reanimated law would:

  • Make most modern weapons illegal. Now imagine if what previously was free speech was suddenly switched to become illegal because it became politically unpopular.
  •  Define most modern weapons as “assault weapons.” Imagine if your speech was suddenly made illegal by the use of certain adverbs, adjectives or pronouns. This is what lawmakers have done by redefining guns as “assault weapons” due to the kinds of decorations on them.
  •  Limit the number of so called “assault weapons” to one. Imagine if your First Amendment rights were limited to one utterance,  one meeting, one expression, or one church service.
  •  Allow police to search your home without a warrant anytime to determine if you are storing your now illegal weapon properly. No probable cause or due process is given to these gun owners.
  • Require citizens to declare to the government how many weapons they possess to be kept in a database in perpetuity(?).
  •  Abolish open carry by prohibiting the carrying of “assault weapons” in any place but approved areas allowed by new law such as your home or a gun range.

 Don’t fall for the ‘oh, it’s going nowhere in the legislature’ ruse. Instead think about this. These lawmakers were willing to sell out your First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, 14th and maybe Sixth Amendment rights in service of their irrational fear of an inanimate object which you have a right to own.

What else are they willing to do?