Why It Matters: Legislation seeking to restrict firearms is often eventually used as a vector of attack for issues more directly pertaining to sportsmen and women, just as restrictions on hunting are often used as a vector of attack against Second Amendment rights. Our issues are fundamentally intertwined given that firearms of every kind are routinely used in hunting, and many sportsmen are also avid recreational shooters. Therefore, it is important to be aware of these issues as they arise to have a full understanding of what may likely happen in the future and how it impacts our sporting community, even if Second Amendment issues are not your primary interest.
Highlights:
- Colorado legislators have once again tried to ban so-called “assault weapons” by going after commonly owned semi-automatic rifles, but that bill has met with significant resistance that has resulted in heavy modification, plus one recent amendment which endangers funding to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
- Legislators in New Mexico are pushing a wish list bill packed with anti-sportsmen provisions, including a semi-auto ban and a gun registry.
- Oregon’s House and Senate Judiciary Committees shut out pro-gun voices in a joint hearing allegedly about “gun tragedy prevention,” choosing instead to pack the meeting with representatives of anti-gun groups.
Anti-gun legislation that prohibits certain firearms and accessories or has a chilling effect on recreational shooting is especially threatening to the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF), as 80% of Pittman-Robertson revenue can be attributed to the recreational shooting sports community, rather than hunters. Even if you do not own one of the types of firearms affected by these bills, the reduction in sales of them nonetheless diminishes wildlife conservation funding.
Colorado: Senate Bill 25-003, which we have reported on previously, has advanced to the House following significant amendments. SB3 started out in the Senate as a virtual total ban on semi-automatic firearms that accept detachable magazines. However, as said before, intense pressure from groups like CSF, the National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and the public, Colorado senators saw fit to amend the bill down to no longer ban anything, but instead require owners of those firearms to pass either a hunter safety course AND a new firearms safety course to be managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), OR take a yet undefined 12-hour firearms safety course. This version went to the House, where the House Judiciary Committee recently added Amendment 52. Amendment 52, if passed, would divert wildlife funds towards paying for CPW to conduct this new firearms class. This diversion of funds puts millions of dollars of Pittman-Robertson funding at risk, as sportsmen’s dollars may not be used for anything except wildlife conservation, hunting access, hunter’s education programs, land acquisitions, shooting range construction, and other state fish and wildlife agency purposes. Violations of this prohibition risks the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cutting millions of dollars of annual funding to CPW, which they can ill afford.
New Mexico: Senate Bill 279 is essentially a wish list for the anti-gun community. If passed, SB279 would ban semi-automatic rifles, standard capacity magazines, so-called “rapid fire” trigger devices, actual automatic firearms, and if that wasn’t enough, it would top it off by creating a gun registry. Worse still, it would be up to the New Mexico Attorney General to decide which firearms to be added to the prohibited list, making the list arbitrary and unpredictable. The fate of SB279 is uncertain at this point; the chair of the Senate Finance Committee, which presently has the bill, does not seem to be in a big hurry to move it with just days left of the session. However, if passed, the potential decrease in contributions to Pittman-Robertson could be harmful.
Oregon: A joint informational hearing has been scheduled in Oregon by members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. Slated as an informational meeting on gun tragedy prevention, the agenda (consisting of invitation-only speakers) is weighted heavily towards gun control organizations with no sporting-conservation or recreational shooting sports representation. This meeting is occurring as legislators from both chambers are set to begin work on pre-filed gun control legislation for the 2025 session. While legislators will not accept public testimony during this information meeting, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) is working closely with members of the Oregon Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus and in-state partners to share educational information about the value of shooting sports, gun safety, and the ASCF. We will be tracking legislation closely and working to ensure that firearms legislation does not harm the ASCF or recreational opportunities.
As always, CSF will continue to work with legislators and our in-state partners to oppose these and numerous similar bills across the region.
