Oregon governor signs bill banning guns at Capitol, requiring safe storage at home

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) on Tuesday signed a bill that will prohibit guns from being carried inside the state capitol.

“Today, I am signing SB 554 with the hope that we can take another step forward to help spare more Oregon families from the grief of losing a loved one to gun violence,” Brown tweeted.

The bill also requires individuals to secure firearms at home with a trigger or cable lock and to keep them in either a locked container or gun room except for “specified circumstances.”

The Associated Press reports that the bill will take effect in the next three months, with supporters of the bill saying the storage measures will prevent accidental shootings by children, suicides and mass shootings.

The legislation was named after Cindy Yuille and Steve Forsyth, who were killed at a Portland-area mall in 2012 by a man who stolen his friend’s AR-15.

“I will never forget the screams I heard when we had to tell my teenage nephew that his father had been killed at the mall,” Paul Kemp, Forsyth’s brother-in-law, said in his testimony in support of the bill.

Opponents of the bill argued that the delay in accessing firearms could cost lives.

Sheridan, Ore., resident Jim Mischel related in a written testimony how in 1981 his wife was unable to reach her handgun that was locked in a gun box in time before an intruder threatened her with a gun.

“She has never recovered,” Mischel said.

The bill also modified a pre-existing law that allowed concealed handgun licensees to bring handguns into the Oregon State Capitol, effectively banning them from the building.

The AP notes that an interfaith movement also plans to present Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan with signatures in an effort to advance two initiative petitions onto the ballot.

IP 18 would ban the sale of assault-style weapons in Oregon and IP 17 would ban the sale large-capacity magazines while also enacting a permit requirement to buy any gun and a completed background check before the purchase is completed.