Article snippet: Posted at 7:00 pm on July 3, 2017 by Jennifer Van Laar A controversial gun confiscation bill was taken up – and passed – in Oregon’s House Rules Committee today with only 87 minutes’ notice, during a holiday weekend. The bill, SB 719, was filed by Sen. Brian Boquist and is one of Ceasefire Oregon and the Bloomberg Minion Complex’s legislative goals. It’s an “Extreme Risk” Protection Order bill, which allows for people’s 2A rights to be taken away without due process, in an ex parte hearing, if a judge finds that they might be violent in the future. If you’re thinking, “Don’t we have psych hold laws for that?” you would be correct. But, those require doctors and mental health evidence. Not only does an ERPO not require a doctor or mental health evidence – it specifically forbids mental health evidence. Sen. Boquist, the bill’s chief proponent, says the bill is needed to help veterans who might be suicidal, whose families could make an ex-parte request for guns to be taken away from them for a period of time and allow them time to seek professional help. Boquist’s son, a veteran, committed suicide. Unfortunately, the bill doesn’t do anything to provide mental health treatment to people who would have just been deemed at imminent risk of harming themselves or others. Maybe the argument is that they’re not necessarily mentally ill, which the Court wouldn’t know since they can’t take that evidence, but I can’t think of a scenario in which someone who truly was at ris... Link to the full article to read more