HB 2526 : Gun sellers MAY provide educational materials (change from “shall” to “may”)

Position: Support Status: Dead in Committee

Directs Department of Justice to establish firearm safety and suicide prevention education program, to create or approve education materials and to provide educational materials to gun dealers.

Update

This bill was never voted out of committee. 4-18-17: Work session held. 4-17-17: Public hearing held; -2 amendment introduced. 4-14-17: New amendment (-1) added greatly weakening the bill. 4-13-17: Work session also scheduled for April 17, 1 PM, Hearing Room 50, Capitol Building, Salem 4-7-17: Hearing scheduled for April 17, 1 PM, Hearing Room 50, Capitol Building, Salem 1-17-17: Referred to Judiciary with subsequent referral to Ways and Means. 1-9-17: First reading. Referred to Speaker's desk. Chief Sponsor: Rep. Buehler Regular Sponsor: Senator Steiner Hayward

A new amendment (-1) was added on April 14 which greatly weakens the bill. The -1 amendment would:

  • Change the bill from “shall” present firearm safety and suicide prevention information to “may” present the information.
  • The change from “shall” to “may” turns this bill into a suggestion rather than a legal requirement.
  • The bill is scheduled for a work session (vote) on April 18.
  • A new amendment (HB 2526-2) was added on April 17. The -2 amendment would:
    • call for the Oregon Health Authority to:
      • study firearm injury and deaths, and
      • create firearm safety and suicide prevention educational materials.
      • The OHA materials will be made available to gun dealers to provide to gun buyers.
  • While we applaud an OHA study, we urge the Senate to take immediate action and require gun dealers to use currently available information from OHA or information from Harvard’s Gun Shop Project.

The terrible irony of the amendment is Rep. Buehler’s Facebook post inviting people to attend Suicide Prevention Day at the Oregon State Capitol on April 19. Rep. Buehler’s constituents use guns to kill themselves at a rate of 11.3 per 100,000. That is almost twice as high as Multnomah County’s firearm-suicide rate of 6.4 per 100,000.