Federal Judge Rules Oregon Gun Control Law Is Constitutional

A federal judge ruled Friday that Measure 114, the gun control law passed by Oregon voters last year limiting magazines over 10 rounds and instituting a permit-to-purchase requirement for firearms, is constitutional.

In a 122-page opinion released following a weeklong bench trial, U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut dismissed arguments by gun rights advocates that the law violated multiple constitutional limitations.

They argued that it ran afoul of stricter legal standards instituted by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The nation’s highest court threw out a law limiting concealed carry in New York on the basis that it restricted the Second Amendment right to carrying firearms in self-defense and wasn’t consistent with a “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

“[Large capacity magazines] are not commonly used for self-defense, and are therefore not protected by the Second Amendment,” Immergut says, agreeing with a series of academics who testified that large-capacity magazines were not in widespread use at the time the Second Amendment was adopted, and are not now necessary for self-defense.

And permit-to-purchase, she concluded, is similar to gun control laws that have been found constitutional in the past.

But the legal battle over the fate of the law is still far from over. This ruling may be appealed, and the law is facing a parallel challenge in state courts arguing it violates Oregon’s constitution as well.

“The law remains on hold,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement released shortly after the ruling. A judge in Harney County issued an order preventing the law from going into effect last year.

“Our team looks forward to ultimately prevailing in the state courts as well,” the statement goes on.