Oregon appeals court hears arguments on gun safety measure

The Oregon Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday over Ballot Measure 114, the gun safety measure that voters narrowly passed in 2022 and has been placed on hold pending numerous court challenges.

Measure 114 bans future purchases of magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It also requires those purchasing a firearm to get a permit first. Permits will require applicants to complete a safety class and a federal background check.

Attorneys with the Oregon Department of Justice asked a three-judge panel to overturn a 2023 ruling by Harney County Circuit Court Judge Robert Raschio that found the voter-backed gun law violated the state constitution.

During oral arguments in Salem, Senior Assistant Attorney General Robert Koch called Raschio’s ruling “erroneous” and said the legal standard under the Oregon constitution calls for reasonable restrictions.

“Under the law, Oregonians remain free to use magazines with a capacity of 10 or fewer rounds, anyone with a permit can initiate a permit transfer, and anyone whose background check has cleared is free to complete their firearm transfer,” Koch argued. “It reasonably promotes public safety, without unduly frustrating the right to arm self-defense.”

The case was filed by Harney County residents Joseph Arnold and Cliff Asmussen in one of the state’s smallest judicial districts where Raschio is the only judge. Oregon voters passed the 2022 measure with just 50.6% of the vote. And though there were yes votes from every county, the greatest support for the measure came from Multnomah County. Several rural counties voted nearly 3-1 against.

Attorney Tony Aiello argued Tuesday before the state appeals court that Raschio got it right. He said Ballot Measure 114 is overly burdensome and would prevent people from lawfully accessing firearms.

“We already have background checks at the point of sale in the state of Oregon and all 50 states in the United States,” Aiello argued. “This is a second background check … It’s unnecessary.”

According to Oregon State Police, roughly 96% of background checks for firearms are approved in a few minutes.

Firearm transfers are allowed to move forward if a background check take longer than three days. It‘s known as the Charleston loophole, named for the 2015 shooting at a church in South Carolina that left nine dead. The shooter got a firearm after the background check took too long, even though he would’ve been blocked from buying a gun.

“Both state and federal laws provide that the dealer may deliver the handgun to the purchaser after a three business day period, if OSP does not provide notice that the purchaser has been approved or denied,” Oregon State Police note.

On Tuesday, Aiello said Oregonians would be denied their rights if the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned Raschio’s ruling and allowed the measure to go into effect.

“It’s about requiring all Oregonians to go through some kind of training in order to access firearms, and there’s no Supreme Court case law or other case law that gives the Legislature, or here the people, the authority to designate all Oregonians as inherently dangerous persons unless or until they disprove that by going through some kind of training,” Aiello said. “Basically, you’re presumed unfit until you prove otherwise to the government.”

During his rebuttal, Koch stressed that limiting large-capacity magazines promotes public safety.

“The defining feature of a large-capacity magazine is the ability to fire more than 10 rounds without having to pause to reload,” Koch said. “In mass shooting events, that means more shots fired, more injuries, more deaths. Restricting them lowers the number of shots, reduces the number of injuries and fatalities.”

Regardless of what the court decides, it’s not likely to be the final word that would either pave the way for the law to move forward or block it indefinitely.

During a separate trial in federal court months earlier, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut — an appointee of former President Donald Trump — ruled Measure 114 was permitted under the U.S. Constitution. To reach that conclusion, Immergut had to square the state’s gun law with a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling where the court’s conservative majority decided that no one should need special permission to exercise their Second Amendment right to carry firearms outside their home.

Immergut ruled that Measure 114’s permitting system does not violate the Second Amendment and, therefore, does not deprive Oregonians of their liberty, writing that large capacity magazines “are not commonly used for self-defense, and are therefore not protected by the Second Amendment.”

The ruling was appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals but placed on hold until that court rules on a large capacity magazine case out of California, which is likely to get appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and had direct implications for Oregon’s Ballot Measure 114.