Oregon concealed carry license laws challenged by gun rights group
The lobbying group Gun Owners of America filed suit against the city of Salem and Marion County on Friday, challenging Oregon’s concealed handgun carry license laws.
The lawsuit targets restrictions that bar certain out-of-state residents from obtaining permits in Oregon and the state’s refusal to recognize permits from other states.
Cynthia Ladd, the group’s Oregon director and an Arizona resident, is the plaintiff.
In a sworn declaration filed in federal court, Ladd wrote that she’ll be visiting the state Capitol in Salem and meeting with legislators in the next 90 days as part of her lobbying work and wishes to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense in the city. But her Arizona concealed gun permit is not recognized and she can’t apply for one in Oregon.
The state, though, adopted a law in 2021 that bans guns from the Oregon Capitol, even those who have concealed handgun licenses. The city of Salem also prohibits unlicensed possession of loaded guns in the city.
The suit alleges that Ladd is “a typical, law-abiding American citizen with ordinary self-defense needs, who cannot be dispossessed of her right to bear arms in public for self-defense in Oregon simply due to her nonresident status.”
The city of Salem declined comment, citing the pending litigation, according to Robert B. Layne II, the city’s spokesperson.
To obtain an Oregon concealed handgun license, an applicant must be a resident of Oregon, or a non-resident who lives in a bordering state, including Washington, Idaho, Nevada or California.
Non-residents who live in a state bordering Oregon can apply for a concealed carry license to an Oregon county sheriff’s office that borders their state. Oregon county sheriffs, though, have discretion on whether to process non-resident applications, and many restrict them strictly to people who work or own property in their county.
Ladd’s lawsuit is one of a number of similar suits that have targeted residency barriers and out-of-state restrictions on concealed carry gun permits.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen found New York’s concealed carry laws unconstitutional. It stated that gun-control provisions had to comport with the text and “historical tradition” of the Second Amendment. Since then, state and local governments have had to show their own gun regulations are consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.
Some states recognize many permits, others only a few, and others, like Oregon, only recognize their own permits granted for residents.
On Friday, the Liberty Justice Center petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the state of Minnesota’s law that requires a long-haul trucker who has concealed gun carry permits in Florida and Georgia to also obtain a license from Minnesota if he wants to carry a gun there.