Hyperbole distorting suicide measure facts

According to the Second Amendment News, Silence is Consent, Truth or Fiction, The Gun Collective, GunsAmerica, Guns.com and other voices for the taking-up-arms crowd, which seems to specialize is whipping its adherents into a state of perpetual frenzy, state Sen. Brian Boquist succeeded in ramming through a gun confiscation edict in the Oregon Legislature this year.

Yes, that Brian Boquist. The Dallas Republican with the  previously unblemished gun rights record. The former U.S. Army Special Forces officer who served his country with great distinction. The avid gun owner whose rural district has long embraced his thoughtful and disciplined brand of conservatism.

In its usual measured tones, Silence is Consent termed the action “an unprecedented move of ruthless tyranny,” perpetrated on a hoodwinked public over “massive resistance from Republicans.” Thanks to this “Orwellian” miscarriage of justice, it proclaimed, “Oregon is no longer a free state.”

Two of Boquist’s colleagues, Reps. Mike Nearman of Independence and Bill Post of Keizer, joined in the orgy of outrage. They followed up by launching a referendum designed to undo this alleged “gun grab” at the polls.

However, there is actually far less here than meets the eye. A very great deal less.

All Senate Bill 719 actually does is allow a disturbed individual’s immediately family — or a law enforcement officer in its stead — to seek a court order barring that individual from possessing a firearm. The aim is to prevent the subject from committing the kind of gunshot suicide that claimed the life last year of the senatior’s 31-year-old son, U.S. Navy veteran Seth Boquist.

The petitioner is required to swear under oath that the respondent poses an imminent threat to himself or others. The petitioner is also required to support his claim with “clear and convincing evidence” if the respondent opts to exercise his constitutional right to contest the action in court.

To discourage frivolous, vindictive or unfounded accusations, the bill establishes a penalty of up to one year in jail for filings judged to lack legal merit. Furthermore, it ensures the respondent he will not be ordered to turn over any weapons until he has either gotten a full and fair hearing in an impartial setting, or opted to waive that right.

In fact, the measure, which reflects ones enacted previously in our neighboring states to the north and south, is exceptionally narrow in regulatory scope and unusually broad in due process protection. That being the case, we hope thinking Oregonians won’t fall victim to the hype and hysteria of the gun lobby’s deeply deceptive campaign when petitions are thrust their way.

Legislative neophytes Nearman and Post have proven themselves as rigid as Boquist is pragmatic, as unthinking as he is reflective, and as deceptive as he is candid. Their pandering petition drive deserves to fall woefully short of the 80,000 signatures it needs, and to be roundly rejected at the polls if it manages to make the ballot anyway, thanks to paid petitioners hired by deep-pocketed benefactors.