SB 941, the universal gun owner registration bill, just got worse. Yes, that’s hard to believe, but in a party line vote in the House Judiciary Committee, the Democrats, actually achieved that.

They used SB 315 as a vehicle to do this. That bill, which dealt with record keeping on used guns for pawn shops and gun stores, was “gut and stuffed” with changes to SB 941. The “dash 8” amendments inserted into SB 315 were the product of a “deal” struck by House Rep Brian Clem in exchange for voting in favor of the massive new registration scheme.

So what changes? First, you can now lend someone a gun for hunting or target practice and they can actually have the gun while on the way to and coming back from the range or hunt. The amendment actually says “during the time in which the transferee is preparing to engage in, is in engaged in or is in the process of completing activities related to hunting trapping or target shooting.”

While that sounds like an improvement, it does open the door for plenty of misunderstandings, confusion and bad judicial interpretations and is still far worse than even California law, which allows you to lend a firearm to a person for an entire hunting season.

But the really strange part is a new provision that says you may loan a firearm to someone you know for up to seven days without going to a dealer for a background check. But don’t think that’s some kind of great deal. You would still need to do the background check, but under this change you could do it yourself over the phone.

But wait, there is no explanation for the 7 day limit. There is no clarification of a process for returning the firearm. There is no mention of what happens if the gun is not returned “on time.” And, the amendment says that if you conduct a background check, and if the person to whom you are loaning the firearm PASSES the background check, and that person uses the gun in a crime, you face the same penalty as if you had not done the check at all! You face the same penalty if the police approve the person and he turns out to be a prohibited person! We are not making this up.

These changes were made to provide cover for House Reps Clem and Paul Evans who pretend to be pro-gun but voted to attack your privacy and your Second Amendment rights. They only serve to make this bill even more incompressible and put more people at risk. The changes were the result of many back room deals and lots of deceit. The bill with the “gut and stuff” amendments now goes to the House floor where it will no doubt be passed by the Democrat majority, most of whom will not have read it.

That, of course, is the bad news. The good news is that Lane County today passed a resolution saying it is “unable to expend any county resources for the implementation and enforcement of Senate Bill 941”

Thanks to the County Commissioners of Lane who voted for this 4-1 with the only “no” vote coming from Commissioner Sorenson.

Tomorrow night the City of Canby will be voting on a similar resolution. Please contact the City Council and urge support of Resolution 1217.