GOA/GOF & Oregon Firearms Federation
File Motion To Intervene in Columbia County
COLUMBIA COUNTY, OR –-(Ammoland.com)- Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, and Oregon Firearms Federation, along with Oregon resident Raven Christopher Brumbles filed a motion to intervene in a case involving Columbia County, Oregon undermining pro-second amendment ordinances.
In 2016, Brumbles started a petition to get a Second Amendment Protection Order (SAPO) initiative on the Columbia County ballot. Mr. Brumbles was successful in getting the required signatures, and the initiative was placed on the ballot. In November of 2018, the voters of Columbia County voted the initiative into law.
Two years later, Brumble once again was able to get another ordinance on the ballot. This time it was a Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinance (SASO). When he submitted everything to the County, the Columbia County clerk rejected the proposed initiative. Mr. Brumbles appealed the ruling, and after fixing one section, the County clerk placed the initiative on the ballot.
Once again, the voters of Columbia County voted to adopt the measure. The Columbia County board was not happy with the people’s will and decided they needed to do something. After all, the County Board paid for legal help to fight against the initiatives before was even circulated.
The Board amended the SASO and repealed the SAPO. The changes to the SASO made it easier to get rid of the law. The Board added, “shall be automatically repealed” if it is “overturned or declared invalid by a court” to the text of the SASO. Then the Columbia County Board removed all penalties for anyone violating the laws. The move removed all teeth from the ordinances.
The Board never notified Mr. Brumbles of the changes. The voters were never directly notified of the changes. The motion to intervene claims that the Board made these changes to the SASO to protect itself and its agents from the penalty laws. There is a lot of evidence to back up the accusations of GOA’s legal counsel’s claim, including the involvement of For Gun Safety’s campaign against the laws.
The Columbia County Board then asked a court to validate the law. Instead of fighting for the will of the people, the Board argues that the law is invalid. The legal team for Brumbles and the pro-gun organizations believe that the Board changed the SASO in hopes the court will find a single part of the law to be invalid. If the court finds the smallest part of the law invalid, then the whole law will be thrown out.
The timeline to intervene has passed, but the court can rule to allow the parties to intervene. The parties trying to intervene has an excellent reason for the delay. Because of COVID, there has been a lack of public meetings and no publicity for the Board’s anti-gun moves. The petitioners only found on about the Board’s actions last week.
What is unknown is how Everytown knew what the Board’s actions would be before they acted. Many find it suspicious that the rabidly anti-gun group had their motion to intervene filed almost as soon as the Board asked the court to validate the law. The only conclusion to many gun owners in the County is that someone on the Board had been working with Everytown for Gun Safety.
AmmoLand News will be filing an “open records request” for all communications between the Columbia County Board and Mike Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety.
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