Oregon considers gun control bill targeting domestic abusers

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Advocates of gun control often say states that have expanded background checks have far fewer women gunned down by their domestic partners. Now, lawmakers in Oregon are targeting convicted domestic abusers directly with legislation making it harder for them to keep their firearms.

Under the bill, Oregon law enforcement officials would have the authority to confiscate the firearms of people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence against an intimate partner or subject to a restraining order that was upheld after a hearing.

There is a federal law prohibiting certain domestic-violence offenders adjudicated by the courts from possessing a firearm. But there are only 14 federal agents in the state capable of enforcing it and no current Oregon statute matching the federal version, said bill sponsor Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, a Democrat from Gresham. The measure closes that gap and brings Oregon in line with 19 other states that have passed similar bills, she said.

The bill's backers say women are more likely to be killed if their abuser owns a gun. Of the 40 deaths related to domestic violence in Oregon last year, 70 percent of those people were killed by a firearm, according to the Oregon Alliance to End Violence Against Women.

"Research shows that domestic abusers who possess guns tend to use them as part of their pattern of abuse, as a ready threat to further violence and as a tool for psychological control and mistreatment," state Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum told the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

But opponents argue the measure goes too far beyond federal mandates because it would apply to more types of relationships. The federal law applies only to current or former spouses, boyfriends or girlfriends. The Oregon proposal would also include siblings, parents, children and intimate partners who may not have lived together.

Dozens of people submitted testimony saying the proposal "grossly broadens the definition of domestic violence well beyond what any reasonable person would determine it to be."

"So if a person gets into a shoving match with an obnoxious brother-in-law, under this bill they'll be treated like a wife-beater. We believe this demeans real acts of domestic violence," said Kevin Starrett, executive director of the Oregon Firearms Federation.

Sen. Jeff Kruse, a Roseburg Republican who voted against the bill in committee, said he would support the measure if it were dialed back to the federal definition. An amendment matching the state definition to the federal one has been introduced, and both Kruse and Monnes Anderson said the bill could be revised to that version before it hits the Senate floor.

The measure has passed the Senate Committee on Judiciary on a 3-2 vote, with Republicans voting against it.