Oregon Firearms Federation files federal lawsuit over Measure 114

The gun rights group, the Sherman County Sheriff, and a Marion County gun store owner filed the lawsuit against state leaders on Friday.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Opponents of Measure 114 filed a federal lawsuit, the first challenge of its kind in Oregon. It urges a judge to block the recently passed gun law, just three weeks before it’s set to go into effect. 

On Friday the Oregon Firearms Federation, the Sherman County Sheriff, and a Marion County gun store owner filed a lawsuit against Governor Kate Brown and the state’s Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, specifically taking issue with the magazine ban. 

In the suit, the plaintiffs claimed millions of law-abiding Americans own firearms equipped with this technology, align them “standard issue magazines” and not large capacity. 

Plaintiffs said the ban violates their Second Amendment rights — and right to due process. 

The lawyer representing the gun rights group wrote in the lawsuit that “banning magazines over 10 rounds is no more likely to reduce criminal abuse of guns then banning high horsepower engines is likely to reduce criminal abuse of automobiles,” and that “the only thing the ban contained in 114 ensures is that a criminal unlawfully carrying a firearm with a magazine over 10 rounds will have a potentially devastating advantage over his law-abiding victim.”

Rev. Dr. WJ Mark Knutson with Lift Every Voice Oregon, the group behind the ballot measure, disputes the assertion that 114 infringes on the Constitutional rights of Oregonians. 

“Those who already have them — it already says they would keep them, could use them on their property or at shooting ranges, so nobody’s taking away anybody’s guns or their magazines,” Knutson told KGW on Saturday.

He said in drafting the measure, the interfaith coalition worked with gun owners, hunters, and law enforcement to make the law equitable, and reasonable.

The new gun law requires a five-year permit, firearms training and a federal background check to purchase a gun. It also bans the sale of magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. 

“Fifty-one percent may have passed this, but I could see 70% in a year and a half, saying this makes all the sense in the world and that number will grow over time because we will see a real difference,” Knutson said.

The plaintiffs fighting the gun control measure hope a judge will declare it unconstitutional, while supporters believe it will be upheld and move quickly through the courts.

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