Oregon Ballot Measure 114: Where Was the NRA?

Alex Ashton
6 min readNov 10, 2022

Trying to make sense of the NRA’s strategy (or lack thereof) on the contentious Oregon ballot measure.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska via Pexels

As of this morning, it appears that Oregon Ballot Measure 114 is going to narrowly pass. The law, if implemented as written, will turn Oregon from a relatively gun friendly state to one of the more restrictive in the country.

The opposition argument on Oregon Ballot Measure 114

Opponents of the measure had plenty to dislike.

The measure sets an arbitrary ban on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. This severely hampers the options of would-be gun owners, as many popular firearms have standard capacities of anywhere from 12 to 18 for a pistol and 30 for rifles. Such restrictions are not placed upon government officials, such as police.

It establishes an overly burdensome permitting system, to be administered by the police chief or sheriff of the applicant’s jurisdiction. Besides the many burdens placed upon the citizen to exercise a constitutional right, most Oregon police departments are universally against this setup for a multitude of reasons. Like many sheriffs in Colorado have done after their state’s magazine limit law went into effect, Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan already stated her department will not enforce…

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Alex Ashton

History, culture, family, religion, data, and technology from a center-left, civil libertarian, middle-class perspective. Publisher: The Missing Middle.