“Oregon officials have banned state employees from carrying weapons in the workplace unless they’re needed for their jobs,” statesmanjournal.com. “The move caused consternation Thursday among Republican leaders in the Legislature.” Consternation? Did they run out of righteous indignation? Oh wait Here it is . . .

Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli, of John Day, expressed concern for the safety of state employees.

The governor’s administration has no business confiscating self-defense rights from public servants, volunteers and others, who have committed themselves to serving our state,” Ferrioli said in a prepared statement. “Oregonians should be outraged that public servants are now endangered due to a seemingly political agenda at the cost of safety.”

The Oregon Department of Administrative Services quietly imposed the ban on Jan. 6, citing the need to “provide a safe and secure environment for employees and visitors.” I don’t think the word “safe” means what they think it means. But wait! There’s more!

Banned are firearms, daggers, slingshots, and a host of other specified weapons. Oddly, even knobkerries were mentioned. Knobkerries are clubs used by indigenous people like the Zulus in southern Africa, and are probably unknown to most Oregonians.

House Republican leader Mike McLane is asking Gov. Brown’s office to restore Oregonians’ gun rights as soon as possible. Good luck with that.

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56 COMMENTS

  1. For every snip of the anti-rights scissors, there is always a story.

    Usually a lame one!

    • I had one in my car in collage (down town Chicago). I have never heard this word for them though, always called them “rungu” with a rolled r. That is the Swahili word for them. They are used as talking sticks in meetings.

      • “They are used as talking sticks in meetings.”

        Sooooooo, that is where the writers got the idea for the shusher in the movie Home!

      • I have a rungu with my name carved in the handle and a “Task Force – Horn of Africa” coin imbedded in the head. It is at work on my book case, behind my desk, near the window. It would make a handy window breaker to create an escape route to get to where my firepower is stashed.

        I suppose I can’t work for the state in Oregon. Darn.

    • I’ve got a knobkerrie that I inherited from my grandpa. Gramps lived in Southern Africa for a while back in the 1950s. Ironically, my grandpa was an Oregonian. Sadly my grandpa wasn’t a “gun guy”, but I did get several of his Bibles, an African spear, and the nobkerrie. (plus a godly heritage from him).

  3. So I assume that State employees now banned from carrying firearms must pass through TSA like screening to enter their places of work? With high walls, electronic locks and armed guards to keep them safe?

    • Including sensing knobkerries or whatever, items made of wood? Say baseball bats, for the purpose of argument. Enforcement is impossible, only those concerned with obeying the law will be inconvenienced, first by being disarmed, then by being murdered, ever so casually, by a criminal who does not care about your stupid laws.

  6. I’m sitting in an office right now. Quite literally I am surrounded by slingshots (rubberbands) and knockberries (every damn blunt thing in here). Not to mention scissors, xacto blades, paper slicers, chair legs, books, glass bottles, potted plants, these little spikey things that measure water in the potted plants that could definitely be driven through somebodys skull.

    I’m not even going to check out the supply room. It’s like a secret compound stockpile of WMD’s.

  7. “No, this is just the baseball bat I use to play softball. Yeah, the big iron spikes through it are for…grip…yeah…grip.

    • That’s not a machete… its the replacement blade for the paper cutter. I’ll get around to installing it aannnnyyy day now.

      • Oh that’s just a DeWalt 9mm nailgun. See how it’s all yellow and plastic? Certainly not a GLOCK. See, it says “DeWalt” right here in Sharpie. That’s how they come now spray painted yellow with sharpie logos. Can’t get anything good made in China, am I right?

        • Ruger makes the SR22 pistol in Dewalt yellow & black; if you wrote ;Dewalt’ on that it should pass right thru.

  8. Probably some Liberal Progressive DemoNazis saw some republican type with a “Knobkerrie cane” & thought it was rasict. African Mace, staff, or cane weapon. With octagonal carved head…..

    • Knowing these PC whackos in Oregon, they probably wanted to be ‘inclusive’ and ban ‘non-Eurocentric’ weapons too.

  12. Evidently Gov. Brown is planning to give sanctuary to a tribe of Zulus. ?

  13. Last year I went to my local dr. and told her that I sometimes got out of breath while walking. She recommended that I get a cane and wrote it on my med records. Last month I boarded went through Security and boarded a plane with a Japanese oak wooden practice sword. No one made any trouble after I told them it was a ‘mobility assistance device’ and showed them the paperwork from my GP.

    (Didn’t think it worthwhile telling her that I was only ‘out of breath’ after a 5 mile hike 🙂 )

    • You are my hero.

      I’ve mentioned before that the walking stick I used early in my stroke recovery, just happened to look like a Shillelagh, with a brass knob version of the traditional root knob handle.

      I shoulda got a doctor’s not. Well, that’s next on the list.

      • Maybe I should teach my next service dog to defend me — after all, my disability makes it hard for me to count on being able to defend myself, and that’s a medical issue that a dog can remedy, right?

  15. We have to challenge the asserted default position that licensed carriers make the workplace dangerous … as well as the asserted default position that banning licensed carriers makes the workplace safer.

    Neither is true. Make policy makers PROVE it.

    • No way, it’s not nearly as bad in Oregon as it is in CA. CHL holders can carry legally in all schools in Oregon (some Universities have “policies” against carrying, only if you are associated with the University, i.e., students, professors, workers, etc., but the worse that can happen is they expel or suspend you – it isn’t actually against the law). CHL holders can legally carry practically anywhere except for courthouses (hospitals, churches, bars, sports venues, etc., all acceptable). CHL holders can even carry in public/City buildings, as long as it’s not a court facility. Of course, CHL holders can’t carry in federal buildings, per the federal laws. No mag limits, no AWB, no AW registration, no waiting period, no ammo limits, signs don’t carry the force of law, open carry is legal (although fairly regulated for non-CHL holders) etc. I’d argue the gun laws here are better than most states.

  17. I don’t see how this is legal. Oregon’s gun laws are preemptive. See ORS 166:

    2015 ORS 166.170¹
    State preemption
    Text
    News
    Annotations
    Related Statutes
    (1) Except as expressly authorized by state statute, the authority to regulate in any matter whatsoever the sale, acquisition, transfer, ownership, possession, storage, transportation or use of firearms or any element relating to firearms and components thereof, including ammunition, is vested solely in the Legislative Assembly.
    (2) Except as expressly authorized by state statute, no county, city or other municipal corporation or district may enact civil or criminal ordinances, including but not limited to zoning ordinances, to regulate, restrict or prohibit the sale, acquisition, transfer, ownership, possession, storage, transportation or use of firearms or any element relating to firearms and components thereof, including ammunition. Ordinances that are contrary to this subsection are void. [1995 s.s. c.1 §1]

    Oregon laws ban guns in public buildings, but the ban does not apply to CHL holders.

  18. Pepper spray and pocket knives are permitted. That could make it worth taking a class on close combat with a knife. The kicker is that anything becomes prohibited if you use it in self defense. The policy would appear to include hands and feet if you used your martial arts skills to put down a bad guy before he hurt someone. That makes the policy an indirect prohibition of self defense unless it’s in your job description.

    As Shire-man said, there’s lots of stuff in an office that can can serve as improvised weapons. My favorite example is a dry chemical fire extinguisher. Spray the powder in the bad guy’s face to blind him and beat him over the head with the case.

  21. This has been law in the former Constitution State known as connecticu for many years. Non law enforcement state employees are banned from having an firearm, fascimile, ammo or magazine,… can’t have it in your car on state property or on your person… they take away but provide no protection for employees working in gun-free zones

  22. So may we assume LEO’s are required to disarm when the go off duty?

    Hahahaha! that was funny, wasn’t it!

    • Hilarious! Don’t you realize, LEOs are magical? They need no restrictions, they are like gods, completely infallible.

      Sarc//

      • Nah, they’re just like Batman, only without the protection of a secret identity (at least until they get balaclavas), so they need these weapons to constantly defend against hordes of thugs’ homies and drug kingpins looking for revenge when they walk up to their front door every day. That’s why they’re also given an extra trashcan, in which to dispose of all the corpses, but still have to pay for an extra pickup during the week.

  24. Oy, more madness from the People’s Republic of Oregon . . . .

    Wonder how they’d treat one of these:

    http://www.desantisholster.com/CITY-SLICKER

    Of course, since PRO commissars consider private citizens having any money to be a species of wrongthought (which must be corrected by appropriate confiscatory taxation), it would not be much of a stretch for them to consider a coin purse to be similarly evil . . . .

  25. Sitting in the airport reading this. I’ve checked my 1911 lightweight commander.
    Laughing my butt off at the comments.
    Heading to Reno for a trade show.

  26. Amusingly enough, despite their lengthy list of prohibitions it would seem that the humble blackjack and sap are still A-OK for carry unless they fall under “bludgeon”, which based on the definition of “bludgeon” they wouldn’t seem to.

    It would also seem that maces, morning stars, battle axes, polearms (all types), swords, crossbows, bows and war hammers are also OK for carry at work. Since your polearm is acceptable a spear would probably fall under that and you could make it an assault spear by carrying an atlatl which is also not banned.

    Just OC a few pilim type javelins and an atlatl. Legal, devastating, long range and can’t be thrown back to good effect!

    • Please. Oregon’s been salmon & weed crazed for a long, long time. There were never anything but a bunch of busybody hippies in charge, they just didn’t have enough money to butt into everyone’s business until now (still don’t, really). Freedom doesn’t just ‘disappear’ in these places the way the residents all like to pretend after the fact. The vast majority of sane Oregonians simply haven’t bothered to ensure that their government represents them and has its priorities straight, for decades. The wages of apathy in a democratic system.

  29. Yeah, ’cause if some asshole decides to go postal, this will be a really effective deterrent.

    Nobody tell them a pair of scissors is actually two daggers bolted together…

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