Oregon DAS Enacting More Anti-Gun Rules — Legal Opinion Bleg Revisited

Long-time readers may recall me blegging for a legal opinion a while back. I was — and still am — trying to determine a clear answer to the question:

Is it legal or illegal for a state employee to carry a licensed, concealed firearm into state office buildings?

A couple of updates since then:

• DAS policy #125-06-321 seems to have disappeared off the Interwebz. Perhaps it has been rescinded?
• Other agencies have enacted their own agency-specific "no weapons" policies to replace it.

Now, I get this from the Oregon Firearms Federation: Kate Brown Prohibits Self Defense For State Workers:

The Department of Administrative Services, at the direction of Governor Kate Brown, has adopted a policy prohibiting all state employees from having a licensed firearm for self defense on "all property and facilities owned, leased, rented or otherwise occupied by the Oregon state government including grounds, buildings, parking structures and lots, vehicles and other equipment and any site where an employee enters on behalf of the employee's employment with Oregon state government except for an employee's home (including employees who live in state housing)…"

This policy extends to "All employees, including limited duration and temporary employees, board and commission members, volunteers, and others working in an agency…" [emphasis in original]

[blink blink]

Apparently either the Oregon Department of Administrative Services did not learn from its past mistake, or they are getting pressured by the Brown Administration to re-enact anti-gun policies.

But is it a legal policy, as in "supported by applicable law"? Further analysis below the fold.

Quote(s) of the Day — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (January 20, 2016)

After the recent events near Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, something has been tickling the back of my mind about it, and I finally placed my finger on it.

On January 20, 2016, six days before the deadly "traffic stop", Oregon Governor Kate Brown held a press conference and wrote a couple letters. She had a few things to say.

Via OPR:

"Federal authorities must move quickly to end the occupation and hold all of the wrongdoers accountable," Brown said.

"This spectacle of lawlessness must end."

Also via OPR, in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey [PDF warning]:

[F]or the citizens of Harney County and indeed all Oregonians, I must insist on a swift resolution to this matter. Efforts to negotiate have not been successful, and now it is unclear what steps, if any, federal authorities might take to bring this untenable situation to an end and restore normalcy to this community.

I request on behalf of my fellow Oregonians that you instruct your agencies to end the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely and quickly as possible. [emphasis added]

While I won't go so far as to claim that the shooting death of any of the protesters occurred at the behest of Our Honorable Governor, I will point out that the Feds certainly did end the "spectacle of lawlessness", and they certainly are "end[ing] the unlawful occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as safely [for some] and quickly as possible". The claim can be made that they took the request and ran with it.

I hope she's satisfied.

Stay safe.

Bad News on S.B. 941

It passed.

As in, passed the Senate (which I talked about here), and last night passed the House, too.

It's now going to Gov. Kate Brown's desk, where all the local news channels are reporting she's expected to sign it.

I know it's a long shot — she's a Portland-area Democrat, after all, and those types generally just love them some "gun control" — but until she puts pen to paper, there's still a chance.

So here's my proposal:

She's openly bi-sexual, and made her political bread standing up for "gay rights" and "women's rights". Hit up her Contact box with pro-gun messages, and emphasize the pro-woman and pro-gay aspects. Hit her in the heartstrings.

Talk about the hypothetical battered woman whose friend offers to loan her a firearm to protect herself from her abusive spouse; both would be instant felons if S.B. 941 is signed into law.

Talk about the hypothetical gay couple who endure hateful slurs day in and day out, who start receiving credible threats against their lives and safety. One may own firearms, but cannot legally transfer a gun to the other — because they're a same-sex couple, they cannot be legally married in Oregon*, and so the spousal exemption in S.B. 941 doesn't apply; they'd both be felons if it becomes law.

[Added:] It's come to my attention that recent court challenges may nullify (or may have already nullified) the "one man, one woman" language in the Oregon Constitution, so this second hypothetical may be a non-starter. Regardless, spam the contact form with the first hypothetical and the notion that criminals don't run background checks or register their guns. Mention Haynes v. U.S. for extra credit on that one. [/Added]

Also, make sure to point out that no criminal transfers will be prevented by this law. None. Zero.

I know it's a long shot, but we've got to take it. Hail Mary's work occasionally.

Light her up.

Stay safe.
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* - Oregon State Constitution, Article XV, Section 5a. "Policy regarding marriage. It is the policy of Oregon, and its political subdivisions, that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or legally recognized as a marriage." Hey, I didn't make the rules, but we can use them.

On Oregon's New Governor, Kate Brown

I'm attempting to stick to actual facts here, but for full disclosure: I'm not a fan.

TL;DR version: Oregon's conservatives and gun owners will have our hands full.

Governor Kate Brown
(source: Wikipedia)

I've been trying to do research on Gov. Brown since hearing of former-Gov. Kitzhaber's resignation last week, but as Secretary of State elections aren't as … high-profile … as other races, I haven't been able to dig up much.

On the surface, the Secretary of State's job duties are pretty straightforward. As put forth in Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) Chapter 177, the office has very few explicit duties, and most provide surprisingly little wiggle-room for partisan politics. The Oregon Secretary of State is responsible for:

• Keeping records of all official acts of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS) and informing the legislature of the same; and,
• Affixing the state seal, countersigning, and keeping a register of official acts and commissions issued by the Governor; and,
• The safekeeping of all enrolled laws and resolutions; and,
• Keeping the office open during business hours.

Really, not that much. The Secretary of State's office also oversees elections, which includes monitoring the electorate rolls (i.e. who can vote), approving petitions (including validating signatures), verifying candidacy of electoral candidates, etc. That part of the job has a bigger impact to Oregon, but Oregon's laws and rules for elections are a lot of "if ... then ... shall" language; there's not much room to influence any particular race, or really any race for that matter. Either petitioners and potential candidates meet all requirements and follow the rules and get added to the ballot, or they don't and they don't.

On the other hand, the Office of the Secretary of State is a powerful loudspeaker, elevating an otherwise-mundane official into a powerful spokesperson. People listen to the person who holds this office, and as an elected official, we can look at who supported Kate Brown's last races, when she was elected in 2008 and re-elected to another term in 2012. And here is where it gets interesting (and no, the picture is not pretty).

Looking through her views on the issues particular to her office, she's a vocal opponent to "voter ID" laws — y'know, the ones that keep illegal immigrants from voting illegally. We can also infer from that link that she's in favor of limiting campaign spending. Say what you want about it, but getting the word out about someone's candidacy and position on issues requires money, and at the time she was promoting voluntary (for now) spending limits, she was the incumbent. She already had a metaphorical soapbox and bullhorn, and would have denied an equivalent voice to her challenger (also, he was out-raising and out-spending her by a wide margin).

As far as endorsements and campaign contributors from the 2012 election, it's a veritable who's-who of leftist, "Progressive" groups. Additionally, one of the controversies from the 2008 election was the involvement of the Secretary of State Project, described as "a below-the-radar 527 political organization whose stated purpose is 'wrestling control of the country from the Republican Party' through the process of 'removing their political operatives from deciding who can vote and whose votes will count,' namely the office of Secretary of State in many cases."

To be clear, I'll say that again: Kate Brown was supported, by both endorsement and financial assistance, by a (now-dissolved) group committed to removing Republican candidates from power by disallowing and/or disqualifying Republican voters from voting. Whether or not the Oregon Secretary of State is able to do such a thing is irrelevant; her campaign accepted the endorsement and money, so obviously they have some shared interests.

Oregon's Only No Compromise
Gun Rights Organization
(click to visit OFF's site)

So while her views on guns and gun laws may be relatively unknown, her past campaigns and behaviors paint her as a far-leftist — an "extremist", to use the SPLC vernacular — so I'm willing to give the Oregon Firearms Federation (OFF) the benefit of the doubt when they recently stated, "While many will see [John Kitzhaber's resignation] as good news, since he promised to make more restrictions on gun rights a 'priority,' keep in mind his replacement, Kate Brown, will be every bit as bad as he was on gun rights. There is plenty of reason to believe she will be worse."

I pray for all gun owners and conservatives in Oregon.

Stay safe.