Today is the day that Oregon Measure 114 is supposed to go into effect. Boy, has it been a ride. Most of this I have written as time elapsed through this process. As the calendar neared the end of November, the instant background checks were backed up as high as a 20,000 person waiting list. Things were so congested that gun stores started crumbling by mid-November. I saw posts as early as November 17 that stores were no longer accepting orders as they had more than they could fill before this date.

In my local store, there are no firearms for sale. Everything that was on the walls and in the display cabinet is gone. They also are not taking online orders due to volume at this time. Some stores are choosing to follow the letter of the law and release firearms after three days of back-up. That is assuming that they have inventory to sell.

On December 5, we now have 42,000 background checks waiting with Oregon State Police (OSP). They are predicting that many of these will not be cleared before December 8. Once the measure goes into effect, applicants will have to start over with the new process. This means that any person wishing to purchase a firearm will have to be licensed by the county sheriff.

There are at least four lawsuits filed waiting to be heard The first one that had an initial hearing December 2 was sponsored by Oregon Firearms Federation (OFF). National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) along with National Rifle Association – Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA) has filed another. The 2nd Amendment Foundation in conjunction with two county Sheriffs have filed a third. Even Sportsman’s Warehouse and Yamhill County Sheriff have filed a lawsuit.

Each lawsuit has a different bend to it. We have the constitutionality of the premise in the first place, questions about magazine capacity being banned while in ‘common use’ and effectively a defacto ban on firearms because there is no such permitting process in place. We are waiting to see if a temporary injunction will be issued by December 8 until a full hearing is in place.

I am going to make a prediction here. I think that the law is eventually going to stand. As long as the criteria is uniformly understood and applied, it is going to hold up. The reason that Bruen lost in the supreme court was that there was no practical way of exercising 2nd amendment rights. I don’t see regulating to a large extent as removing the right. I hope I am wrong, but that is my prediction.

I have been taking some temperatures on local forums. The overwhelming attitude (90%) is non-compliance. Or said another way, most people are not standing in line to get training to purchase another firearm. This is one slice and one look, but I really don’t see how this is going to work out for them. The talk has been get what you can get now and forget the rest. I am not going to share much in the way of strategy because people can look that up for themselves. I am not going to be the one that spoils the dish so to speak.

Given that most of the forum members are not signing up for ‘training’ there have been several discussions about moving. Again, the prevailing opinion is that this is going to go everywhere. I am afraid that they are right. While I do believe that the ‘Red’ states are going to be the last to fall, the overall trend is freedom is not valued. If it were, how could we even have half of the national debates that we actually have?

To make matters more complicated, the Secretary of State is saying that Measure 114 is legitimate from a vote count an legal standpoint while the Attorney General is saying that the measure is currently unenforceable. The Secretary of State is asking for a two month extension while all signs point to the measure going into effect.

As of December 7, at least two preliminary injections have been ruled. The first was dismissed; this was the lawsuit brought by OFF. The second was approved for a one month stay. The purpose of this delay is because the state is not ready to enact the measure at this point. Once again, we are marching toward enactment.

End Your Programming Routine: Maybe I should have read the measure more closely. I have now come to realize that there is no provision for confiscation or outright barring of magazines which I previously believed (this is akin to bumpstocks, once deemed illegal they were forbidden, period). That being said, I have plenty of range work to do in the next couple of years where I don’t have the desire to purchase a new firearm until I get done gathering data with what I currently have. I do have some desires to trade up but that can also wait. This leaves me in a position that I can probably wait out my kids final couple years in school before moving. So, I am taking everything day by day at this point.