Oregon's attorney general on Wednesday released a certified ballot title for an initiative to ban the sale of high-capacity magazines and a broad range of semiautomatic pistols, rifles and shotguns.

The initiative also would require most existing owners of these weapons to pass criminal background checks and register with the state in order to keep them. Failure to do so would be a Class B felony.

The new ballot title for Initiative Petition 43 reads: "Prohibits 'Assault Weapons' (Defined), 'Large Capacity Magazines' (Defined), Unless Registered With State Police. Criminal Penalties."

The measure's opponents could still appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court to force changes to the title. Portland-area clergy are leading the effort to gather the 88,184 signatures needed by July 6 to get it on the November ballot.

The ballot initiative would ban the manufacture and sale of magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition, and firearms classified as assault weapons in Oregon starting in 2019. It would define 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, plus some semiautomatic shotguns. Military and law enforcement employees who are required to carry firearms would be exempt, as would retailers and manufacturers who supply those agencies. Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum's office released a draft ballot title in April.

The agency made revisions to the ballot title caption, tweaked explanations of the effect of a "yes" or "no" vote, and updated a summary of the initiative. The Secretary of State's office said the draft ballot title attracted what appeared to be a record number of public comments.

State elections workers received 1,095 comments by the May 8 deadline, according to Debra Royal, chief of staff to Secretary of State Dennis Richardson. The office does not track the number of comments received on previous initiative petitions, but Royal said a longtime state elections worker told her the state typically receives 10 to 15 comments on the draft ballot title for any given initiative.

"We have reviewed each and every comment," wrote Denise G. Fjordbeck, a lawyer at the Department of Justice, in a letter to the Secretary of State's office on Wednesday. "While many of the comments simply stated support or opposition to the proposed measure, many hundreds suggested specific language for use in the ballot title."

Most commenters took issue with the inclusion of such terms as "assault weapons" and "large capacity magazines" in the title, the attorney general's office found. Commenters complained that "assault weapon" was "an inflammatory, imprecise, or ambiguous term," Fjordbeck wrote. Both terms come from the original text submitted by the initiative petitioners.

As for "large capacity magazines," Fjordbeck wrote, "it is important to communicate the breadth and scope of this proposal, including its impact on magazines as part of the actual major effect." However, in both cases she determined that it was impossible to more fully define or describe the terms in the 15-word limit for initiative captions.

The chief petitioners for the initiative objected to the draft ballot title's statement that the measure would criminalize the possession of certain firearms. They said it would ban future sales of certain guns and regulate possession for those who already own them. Those people would be required to register the weapons and pass a background check. Others noted that registration would be a significant change in the law.

"Although we agree that the draft ballot title overemphasized the significance of criminal penalties, the proposed measure does impose serious criminal consequences for noncompliance, and those penalties are also an actual major effect of the measure," Fjordbeck wrote.

The attorney general's office removed a reference in the caption to banning the transfer of the firearms and high-capacity magazines. The only reference to the ban on sales and transfers is now in the summary of the initiative's effects, which states "acquisition mostly prohibited after effective date, January 1, 2019."

-- Hillary Borrud

503-294-4034; @hborrud