A few years back, Oregon passed Measure 114 via a ballot initiative. In short, it created a whole lot of gun control in the state, including a restriction on so-called high-capacity magazines.
Now, the measure is about to have to defend itself before the Oregon Supreme Court...for starters.
While it's been working its way up the judicial food chain, there's no reason to believe a setback at the state supreme court level will spell the end of this terrible law:
In less than two weeks, a voter-approved 2022 ballot measure requiring firearm permits and banning magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition will face Oregon’s highest court. But even after lawyers from both sides wrap up their arguments, the years-long battle to implement one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws may not be over.
The Oregon Court of Appeals in March upheld the law after a circuit court struck it down in January 2024, offering a win to the many faith-based and anti-gun violence activists behind the measure who sought to highlight the success of such policies in saving lives across the nation. The Oregon Supreme Court agreed in June to take up an appeal of the case and set oral arguments Nov. 6, while Oregon lawmakers moved earlier this year to pause implementation of the measure until March 2026 amid the legal wrangling.
Nationally, however, the U.S Supreme Court in recent years has taken the position of expanding gun rights. In a 2022 decision that found people have the right to carry guns in public for self-defense, the court’s conservative majority wrote that Second Amendment cases must consider “the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
And let's be real here, there's no historic tradition of restricting ammo capacity. That's not because multi-shot weapons didn't exist, either. They did, including some the Founding Fathers were likely familiar with. The fact that they never put any such restrictions in place despite this is likely something that can and should come up in the discussion.
The Oregon high court will likely uphold the law because, well, it's Oregon. There's absolutely no reason to believe sanity will prevail there in the least.
But that means it falls to the federal Supreme Court. As it stands, the Court is already considering a magazine restriction law. If it agrees to hear the challenge to a similar law in California, whatever the state court decides could well be rendered moot.
And considering the Bruen decision in 2022, it's unlikely they won't overturn the California case. If they agree to hear it, that is.
That's not a slam dunk, though, which is why the best-case scenario for people in Oregon is for the state's Supreme Court to recognize the issues with the law and overturn it there.
It's just unfortunate that this is Oregon because, again, that doesn't seem particularly likely. They don't really care about rights in the state that's home to Portland, the mecca of rioting for leftist causes.
Which means that while it's not the best option, the most realistic option is the U.S. Supreme Court, one way or another.
