A measure that would require a permit and safety training to buy a gun in Oregon will appear on the November ballot. If approved by voters in the fall, the measure would also ban high-capacity magazines, which hold more bullets than a regular firearm.
The Secretary of State’s website showed Monday that the measure exceeded the signatures needed by a margin of nearly 10,000.
Marilyn Keller, a chief petitioner of Initiative Petition 17, sings a hymn during a press conference at Augustana Lutheran Church, June 30, 2022, when organizers announced they had enough signatures gathered to place the gun permit law on the November ballot. Volunteers continued gathering signatures to ensure there are enough if some are thrown out by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.
Lillian Mongeau Hughes / OPB
In early May, the nearly all-volunteer effort, known as Initiative Petition 17, had less than a third of the signatures it needed. But that changed dramatically in the days after the shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Volunteers and donations poured in, and the number of signatures ballooned. By late June, organizers said they had enough signatures to get the measure on the ballot but continued the effort to ensure there were enough signatures if some were disqualified by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. State officials check and validate every signature. Some are always thrown out, for being recorded incorrectly, being duplicates, not quite matching the voter’s signature on their registration or some other reason.
By Monday, state officials had validated 131,671 signatures, or 82.04% of the 160,498 signatures accepted for verification. The measure needed 112,020 to qualify.
At a time when many states are loosening gun laws, voters in Oregon will now have to decide whether they’re prepared to tighten them.