Anna Staver

(Salem, Ore.) Statesman Journal

Right now%2C Oregon requires background checks for sales at firearms dealers%2C gun shows

This bill would expand checks to garage sales%2C online sales%2C sales between friends

Exempt would be sales between specific family members

SALEM, Ore. — A steady stream of impassioned and sometimes caustic speakers spent more than two hours Thursday telling Oregon lawmakers how they felt about a bill to expand background checks for gun sales.

Senate Bill 1551 would expand the state's background-check requirements from licensed dealers and gun shows to include all sales except for those between specific family members. Applications subject to the new law would include garage sales, online sales and sales between friends.

"When dangerous people get guns, we are all vulnerable," said retired Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, whose wife — former Rep. Gabby Giffords, an Arizona Democrat — nearly died in a 2011 shooting.

Giffords was shot in the head during a campaign event in Tucson, Ariz. Six people died, and 13 others also were wounded.

Oregon state Sen. Betsey Close, a Republican from Albany, Ore., asked Kelly whether the gunman who shot his wife passed a background check.

"Yes, he did. If there were changes in the law in Arizona, he shouldn't have," said Kelly, who with his wife formed Americans for Responsible Solutions on the second anniversary of Giffords' 2011 shooting. "While mental illness is a component of this, you can't allow a loophole that you can drive a truck through."

The public hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is the first for the bill during the 2014 Legislative session. The tone of the packed hearing room shifted when Manuel Martinez accused the committee of treason.

"Don't sell me this. A very powerful man tried to sell me this 50 years ago, and I didn't buy it," Martinez shouted at the committee. "This is Marxism plain and clear ... You don't know anything. You don't know what freedom is."

Jenna Passalacqua, whose mother was killed by the Clackamas Town Center shooter in 2012 in Happy Valley, Ore., chastised lawmakers for their intransigence on gun-control issues.

"Nothing has changed," Passalacqua said. "The fact that this is the strongest bill we have on the table right now is an embarrassment."

In contrast, spokesman Daniel Reid of the National Rifle Association called the background check bill "ineffective and unenforceable legislation" that would not have prevented "any of these mass tragedies."

Director Kevin Starrett of the Oregon Firearm Federation took Reid's argument against the bill a step further, accusing the committee of using it as a way to have Oregonians register their guns with the state.

"We all know what this bill is about. This is a gun registration and confiscation bill. Let's not tell the same lies we told in New York and California," Starrett said, referring to two states that have banned the ownership of certain types of weapons.

The bill's author, Sen. Floyd Prozanski, a Democrat from Eugene, Ore., pushed back by reminding Starrett that Tricia Whitfield, who runs the state's background check program, testified that information on approved sales are destroyed after 10 days.

Starrett questioned whether that's true, and Prozanski quipped, "I understand your conspiracist perspective."

A bill similar to SB 1551 failed to get a vote during the 2013 session after it appeared to lack enough support to pass.

Democrats hold a slim 16-14 majority in the Senate. However, one Democrat signaled last year that she would have broken with her party and voted "no" on the bill.

"I hope that this bill passes," Gov. John Kitzhaber told the committee. "I hope that it gets 16 votes on the floor."

By the end of the hearing no one in the audience appeared to walk away with a different opinion, but Democratic Sen. Michael Dembrow of Portland, Ore., thinks information from Oregon State Police could tip the scales in the bill's favor.

"I think there is a chance some people will change their votes," Dembrow said. "That's my hope."