Jackson County, Ore. — Here in Oregon, there are three initiatives that have been gaining traction for the November election.
Initiatives 43 and 44 would tighten gun restrictions, but there is also a petition for a local initiative that is trying to protect gun rights.
“It’s a second amendment right… It’s part of our bill of rights,” Ryan Mallory said, who is the campaign manager for Patriotic Revolution.
“We like to say second amendment, yes… Weapons of war, no,” Reverend Mark Knutson said, who is the campaign chair for Lift Every Voice Oregon.
In the last few months, Oregon has seen several ballot initiatives involving guns.
Some are in favor of keeping the law as is, while others want tighter restrictions.
“There is not a generation of Oregonians yet that now from preschool to high school has not lived with lockdowns and fear of mass shootings,” Knutson said.
Reverend Mark Knutson is the campaign chair of Lift Every Voice Oregon which is behind Initiative 43.
IP 43 would ban the sale of select semiautomatic guns and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
But it will no longer be on the November ballot since Oregon’s Supreme Court recently ordered a change to the word ‘assault weapons’ in the title.
Now they’ve simply run out of time.
“This has gone back and forth and challenged by the NRA every time,” Reverend Knutson said.
A similar initiative that won’t hit the ballot until 2020 is Initiative 44.
That would require gun owners to use safety devices when storing guns and report lost or stolen firearms within 24 hours.
Otherwise the gun owner would be liable for any injury or damage.
“This law specifically attacks what I would say are law abiding citizens,” Mallory said.
On the other side of the spectrum is a local group called Patriotic Revolution.
The campaign is collecting signatures for an initiative to counteract the other initiatives and prevent them from infringing on the second amendment rights of Jackson County citizens.
“If the state were to pass gun control measures, it would have to go into court to override us as a county,” Mallory said.
After a month of getting signatures, Campaign Manager Ryan Mallory says they already have more than half needed to reach 6,600 total from Jackson County voters.
“We’d like the citizens to vote and have the law already in place, by the time more gun control ballot initiatives come out of the Portland area,” Mallory said.
While each side of the gun debate in Oregon has a different goal in mind, both agree they’re fighting for future generations.
“I’m doing this because I care about my grandchildren — which I don’t even have any yet — having those rights in the future,” Mallory said.
“When five and six-year-olds go into lockdowns, and hear about a shooting, at that age you think it’s happening everywhere,” Reverend Knutson said.
For more information about Lift Every Voice Oregon click here.
For more information about Patriotic Revolution, click here.
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