SALEM, Ore. — A major gun control measure has qualified for the ballot in Oregon and will go to voters in November. If enacted, Initiative Petition 17 would require a permit to purchase a gun and would ban magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.
Lift Every Voice Oregon, the advocacy organization leading the campaign for the measure, announced on July 7 that it planned to file its final round of signatures with the Oregon Secretary of State's office the following day.
The measure needed 112,120 signatures to qualify for the ballot, and the Secretary of State's office elections division confirmed to KGW on Tuesday that the measure's backers ultimately turned in 160,498 signatures, 131,671 of which were valid.
"For the sake of the children and youth in the state we are overjoyed, and for every Oregonian," said Reverend Mark Knutson, one of the chief petitioners.
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The official ballot title will read Requires permit to acquire firearms; police maintain permit/firearm database; criminally prohibits certain ammunition magazines.
Under IP 17, the requirements to obtain a gun purchase permit would include a completed background check plus live-fire and classroom training on how to handle, load, shoot and store a gun. The permit would be valid for five years.
Firearm owners would not be forced to give up high-capacity magazines that they already owned at the time the law took effect, but there would be new restrictions on where they could be used.
Rabbi Michael Cahana is a senior Rabbi at Beth Israel, a synagogue in Northwest Portland. Cahana is also a chief petitioner.
"As with everything in life, we have to have balance. We have to balance the rights of gun owners and rights of ordinary citizens to live in safety," Cahana said.
"It’s time for us to really get up, get out, rock the vote, get this thing passed so we can begin to see another way of living, a safer way of living," said Marilyn Keller, another chief petitioner.
Lift Every Voice Oregon is primarily organized by local faith leaders. Knutson said it was thanks to almost 1,600 volunteers across the state, in every county, that the group was able to get the petition onto the November ballot. The group began campaigning for the petition last year and saw a boost in support and interest following the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde in May.