A Republican lawmaker from Keizer is encouraging gun rights supporters to personally contact three Portland clergy leading an initiative campaign to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in Oregon.

"Should anyone want to make a phone call or send a note...." Rep. Bill Post wrote on Facebook Wednesday morning, above a photo of the phone numbers and home addresses of the three chief petitioners for the initiative displayed in a state database. "Feel free to right click and save the picture then share everywhere."

Post, who described the initiative as a "gun confiscation ballot measure," declined to say why he felt it necessary to post the information to a Facebook group called The Heirs of Patrick Henry, Northwest. "Knowledge is power," Post said in a phone call Thursday afternoon. He said he had called the petitioners and left voicemails about the initiative, but declined to share his message, saying it was "between me and them."

One of the petitioners, Rabbi Michael Cahana of Congregation Beth Israel, said he was wondering why he received "quite a number of calls on my cell phone." The people he spoke with were mostly polite and "certainly shared their views" on the firearms proposal, Cahana said. Comments that arrived via email and Facebook were "not so polite."

Cahana and the two other petitioners, Rev. Alcena Boozer of St. Philip the Deacon Episcopal Church and Pastor W. J. Mark Knutson of Augustana Lutheran Church, filed the initiative this week and must collect more than 88,000 signatures by July 6 to get it on the ballot for the November election.

The Facebook group, which has about 1,000 members, organized a rally outside the Oregon Capitol in early 2015 as lawmakers prepared to take up the first major gun bill in more than a decade. The legislation to require background checks for private gun sales ultimately passed the Legislature and Gov. Kate Brown signed it into law.

As for the new gun proposal, it would ban the manufacture and sale of assault weapons and large capacity magazines in Oregon starting in 2019. Military and law enforcement employees who are required to carry firearms would be exempt, as would retailers and manufacturers who sell the weapons to those agencies. For others, possession of the weapons would be a Class B felony.

The proposal defines assault weapons as certain semiautomatic rifles and pistols that can accommodate detachable magazines and have other military style features such as a collapsible stock or grenade launcher. Semiautomatic shotguns would also fall under the definition if they have fixed magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, can accommodate a detachable magazine or have other features.

Sales of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition would also be banned. People who already own these weapons would be allowed to keep them, if they register them and pass a criminal background check.

Although Post said he was against the assault weapons ban, he said it could be a good thing for gun rights supporters and Republicans if it gets on the ballot.

"Please put it on the ballot," Post said. "It will be the greatest red wave in Oregon's history."

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrud