SALEM, Ore. — An effort to repeal a new Oregon law that enables a court to order confiscation of a gun belonging to a person deemed at risk of suicide or hurting others has failed, its organizers said Thursday, after they failed to get enough signatures to place it on the ballot.
Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican from the town of Independence who was the chief petitioner, blamed Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, saying her delay in signing the bill weeks after it was passed by the Legislature gave too little time to get enough signatures.
Petitioners had 90 days from the end of the Legislative session, which was July 7, to get the signatures but couldn’t begin to gather them until the governor signed the bill, which was Aug. 15. The opponents said they collected fewer than 25,000 signatures of the 58,142 they needed by Thursday.
The gun bill was championed by another Republican member of the Legislature, Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas. In advocating for the bill on May 1, he said it was aimed at preventing suicides among military veterans. A former Special Forces officer, Boquist cited the high number of suicides among veterans. His own stepson, a Navy veteran, committed suicide in 2016.