Bills in the Legislature this session would require Oregonians to lock up their guns when not in use and allow cities, counties and schools to restrict where people can take their guns.

Lawmakers and advocates have tried at least three times to enact what is the most contentious of three gun control proposals now before lawmakers: that owners store their guns securely or face substantial penalties.

But supporters appear bullish that this is the year it will happen.

“Kids are dying,” said Hillsboro Democrat Janeen Sollman, one of House Bill 4005’s main sponsors. “And we need to make sure we’re putting public peace, health and safety above all.”

Sollman said 22 representatives have signed on as sponsors, as have six senators. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum supports the bill, too.

It softens some of the tougher aspects of previous bills -- it calls for fines not criminal charges for violations and gives gun owners more time to tell police if their guns have gone missing.

The bill is sufficiently moderate, Sollman said, that one of Oregon’s particularly vocal gun control groups doesn’t support it, while at the same time it’s sufficiently strong that Oregon gun rights groups are against it.

“I feel like we’re in a very good place,” said co-sponsor Rep. Rachel Prusak, D-West Linn, touting the fact that neither the Oregon Firearms Federation nor Ceasefire Oregon support the bill. “To me, that’s saying we have good policy.”

Even one of the Republican minority’s most vociferous opponents to similar proposals in the past thinks the storage bill has a good chance of passing.

"I just know that these gun bills are a priority for many of the leadership and the majority party,” said Rep. Bill Post of Keizer. “So I would assume they’re going to push these through.”

Sollman and the other sponsors’ goal is to reduce gun violence and youth suicide.

In 2017, 529 people died from gun injuries across the state, according to the Oregon Health Authority, about the same rate per 100,000 people as the United States as a whole. About four in five of the gun deaths in Oregon were suicides.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association determined that getting adults to lock up their guns could prevent as many as 32 percent of youth firearm deaths.

Already, people on all sides have submitted hundreds of comments to the Legislature and testified for nearly three hours Friday to the House Judiciary Committee, the first stop for the bill.

One Oregon woman wrote to recount the grief she has suffered since her daughter killed herself after breaking up with her boyfriend and turning his unlocked gun on herself.

“Those who oppose gun safety regulations are clearly detached from this gut-wrenching agony,” Juliet Peterson wrote.

Medford resident Darren Davidson, meanwhile, testified that the bill is flawed because it “would render firearms useless when most needed, in self defense situations.”

HB4005 spells out what gun owners must do to prevent their guns from getting into the wrong hands and the penalties for violating those rules.

With some exceptions, anyone with a gun not in use would have to lock it up with a trigger or cable lock or keep it inside a locked container or a gun room. It will be the Oregon Health Authority’s job to set the minimum standards for lock devices under the bill.

The punishment for violating the law would be $500. But if someone under 18 gets the gun because of a violation, the maximum fine goes up to $2,000. In what would be the biggest penalty, a gun owner would be responsible for any injuries caused by the gun at any point within two years after a violation.

Other provisions would require owners to lock their guns before giving them to somebody else and tell authorities if their gun has been stolen or lost within 72 hours of realizing it’s missing.

There’s also the possibility that Oregonians will vote on the proposal in November, if it doesn’t become law this session. A prominent Portland gun control advocate, Henry Wessinger, is in process of putting an initiative on the ballot with a similar gun storage proposal.

Gun rights groups have challenged the initiative, and Wessinger is waiting for the Oregon Supreme Court to make a ruling before he and the organization he leads, State of Safety Action, can start collecting signatures.

Two other gun control bills this session could be controversial but so far are garnering far less attention.

One would allow schools, cities, counties and other local jurisdictions to set their own rules on where people can carry guns.

Now, people with concealed handgun licenses are allowed to take their guns into public buildings. Under Senate Bill 1538, local government agencies could forbid that. The core principle behind the bill, chief sponsor Sen. Ginny Burdick said, is to respect the different needs of different communities.

“The gun enthusiasts think it’s very dangerous to have a gun-free environment. And people like me – the more guns, the more dangerous,” the Portland Democrat said. “Under this bill, neither side would prevail.”

House Bill 4036 would designate Portland International Airport’s passenger terminal as a public building, adding it to the state’s short list of places where people need to have a concealed handgun license to bring a gun.

-- Fedor Zarkhin

fzarkhin@oregonian.com

desk: 503-294-7674|cell: 971-373-2905|@fedorzarkhin

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