Recently, Sheriffs across the state of Oregon have given a vow to not at all enforce the new extremely strict gun control law pushed through by the state’s voters this past week.
As of writing, a group of five county sheriffs has stepped up to brazenly and openly refuse to enforce at least a few sections of the recently passed law, as reported by Fox News. The officials in the area claim that the new law attempts to cut down Constitutional gun rights and will be yet another drain on law enforcement officials while outright failing to deal with the problems surrounding much more serious crimes.
“The biggest thing is this does absolutely nothing to address the problem,” explained Union County Sheriff Cody Bowen to Fox News. “The problem that we have is not … magazine capacity. It’s not background checks. It’s a problem with mental health awareness. It’s a problem with behavior health illness.”
“Our society as a whole is a bigger problem rather than saying that, you know, the guns are killing people,” he stated.
The law, known as Measure 114, was approved in the midterm elections by voters in Oregon. The state’s voters ended up approving one of the most strict gun control laws in the entire country. The ballot measure outright banned the transfer or sale of any magazine which is capable of holding an amount higher than 10 rounds of ammo. This rule, additionally, bans the state’s people from getting a gun from a licensed dealer without a full-scale completed background check from state police. Currently, all feder4al regulations claim that any potential purchases can only be held up by a maximum of three days if the background check has not been completed.
This Measure 114 seems to have only skirted through with the slimmest of margins at 51% to 49%, though the votes in the state continue to be tallied. By this past Wednesday evening, a total of six out of a possible 36 Oregon counties had chosen to vote in favor of the measure.
Sheriffs throughout the state have stepped up to echo the concerns from Bowen regarding the law and claimed they will not be a part of enforcing it.
“The Linn County Sheriff’s Office is NOT going to be enforcing magazine capacity limits,” exclaimed Sheriff Michelle Duncan vias a post to social media, as reported by the outlet Willamette Week. It was also stated by Sherman County Undersheriff James Burgett that Sheriff Brad Lohrey would not take part in enforcing the new law either.
Brian Wolfe, the Sheriff of Malheur County, stated that any attempt to try and enforce Measure 114 would only need a stupid waste of resources for his department, as reported by Fox News.
“It would take away from the things that we’re doing every day to try to keep people safe,” stated Wolf. “Restricting people from ownership of guns in my opinion, is not going to help anything. We’re going to make it harder for people to purchase guns for self-defense.”
