Sheriff Kaber,

 We the undersigned concerned citizens, businessmen, employees, and gun owners have a great deal of appreciation for the work you do to keep our community safe and functioning. We are glad to have a Sheriff who respects our God-given and constitutionally protected rights as much as you do. As such, we are respectfully requesting an audience with you to discuss our concerns with Measure 114 and what it means for the future of Klamath County. We believe a town hall-style meeting to discuss what we will do to stop the enforcement of Measure 114 in our community is in order.

Gun control is an act of violence. It is the initiation of force against people who have not violated anyone’s life, liberty, or property. As such, gun control is inherently unjust, and even its most mundane forms can easily lead to tragedy. In 1992, a shotgun a quarter of an inch under the arbitrary federal limit led to three deaths in Ruby Ridge, Idaho. In 1993, unfounded suspicions of arbitrarily illegal firearms at the peaceful-if-problematic Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas led to eighty people—mostly women and children—losing their lives. In 2016, Minnesota’s requirement that licensed concealed carriers inform law enforcement they are carrying led to the tragic death of lawful concealed carrier Philando Castille at the hands of a jumpy, poorly-trained patrol officer.

None of the laws that precipitated these tragedies are as severe as the impending situation we face in Oregon. The 1934 National Firearms Act that led to the tragedies at Ruby Ridge and Waco, while far reaching and unjust, was passed at a time when almost no one owned the guns it affected. Minnesota’s requirement to inform law enforcement that one is carrying is the kind of well-intentioned but misguided law that even many pro-gun people support. Measure 114, on the other hand, affects literally all Oregon gun owners, will COMPLETELY shut down all firearms transfers for an indefinite and likely lengthy period of time, and will decimate local gun stores. In light of the gravity of this situation, Sheriff, we hope that you will listen to our specific concerns with Measure 114, and that you will ultimately pledge your complete support and protection to the gun owners and gun stores of this fine county. Some of our specific concerns with Measure 114 are as follows:

1. Measure 114 is a clear violation of both the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article 1, section 27 of the Oregon state constitution, and is therefore manifestly illegal. We believe you would be well within your rights as Sheriff to stop its enforcement.
   
   
2. Thanks to the resoundingly pro-gun decision the Supreme Court made in “New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen” last summer, we believe that the courts will ultimately shoot down most if not all of Measure 114’s provisions, and that Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan engaged in gross irresponsibility by letting this unenforceable, unconstitutional law onto the ballot in the first place. 
   
   
3. While this law is no doubt unenforceable and will be challenged in court, that will make no difference for the gun stores that will have already been destroyed. In a few short weeks Measure 114 will go into effect without ANY way to implement its licensing requirements, rendering gun stores completely unable to engage in their primary business indefinitely. This will be disastrous for their owners, their employees, and their clients; all of whom are good citizens of Klamath County.
   
   
4. As far as we are concerned, the language of the Second Amendment Preservation Ordinance that the good citizens of Klamath County voted into law by a nearly two-thirds majority in November 2018 already renders Measure 114 illegal and authorizes you to prevent its enforcement in Klamath County.
   
   
5. Romans 13 contains a litmus test for whether or not an act of government is legitimate when Paul writes, “For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:3-4) When a government becomes, “A terror to good conduct,” and, “Bear[s] the sword in vain,” they overstep the bounds of their rightful authority and become lawless criminals. Measure 114 is the very definition of this kind of lawless tyranny. According to the long-held Christian “doctrine of the lesser magistrate”, when a government does this it becomes the duty of local authorities to resist tyranny. As a follower of Christ and our county’s ranking law enforcement officer, we believe it is your duty to take the lead in opposing this tyranny.
   
   
6. Finally, Sheriff, we believe that, unless it is stopped, Measure 114 WILL lead to violence. The enforcement of this law necessitates violence against the people of Oregon. In visiting violence on people for engaging in their God-given and doubly-constitutionally protected right to bear arms, we believe it is only a matter of time before this law leads to tragedy. There have been other draconian gun laws passed in this country, but none by such a razor thin margin, none so immediate and drastic, none in a state as harshly divided between rural and urban areas as Oregon, none at a time when gun owners are as skeptical of their governments, and, most importantly, none in a day and age where our country is fracturing in ways we haven’t seen since the lead up to the Civil War. We wish to prevent such bloodshed, and we believe you are one of the few people with any real power to do so.

Sheriff, we know you and your department will not be enforcing the tyrannical edicts of Measure 114. That has never been one of our concerns. Already, other Sheriff’s across the state are declaring that they will not be enforcing aspects of Measure 114. However, we believe that merely refusing to enforce the magazine ban and hoping that the courts will stop the measure before a permitting process can be put in place is a hollow gesture that does not meaningfully preserve anyone’s right to bear arms, and will do less than nothing to stop local gun stores from being destroyed. 

Will the law likely be dismantled in court? Yes, but this is not the time to play it safe and wait to see how things unfold. We’re in this situation now because, as Thomas Jefferson so succinctly put it in The Declaration of Independence, “Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Sadly, for our grandfathers, the 1934 National Firearms Act was an evil they could suffer through. For our fathers, it was background checks and concealed carry permits. For many of us who have signed this letter, Oregon’s recent restrictions on private sales and firearms storage have been evils that we viewed as so unenforceable as to be sufferable. And because of that, we’ve done nothing to stop them. This has to change. Eventually, the evils being foisted upon us will NOT be sufferable. For many, that time has already come.

We live in a country that was founded through war against a tyrannical government, and that war started with an attempt to confiscate arms and munitions in Lexington and Concord. History has shown us that gun control is an endless forward march, and that Americans will not let their guns be taken. We are watching an unstoppable force hurtle towards an immovable object. It is not a matter of IF history will repeat itself, but rather WHEN it will. Good men cannot avoid radical resistance to tyranny forever. We would be wise to take a stand now while peaceful resistance has a real chance of making a difference. Otherwise, our sons will have to fight this tyranny in the future when bloody revolution is their only recourse. And eventually they will, because we are not raising sons who will let their home become Australia or the United Kingdom. We are raising free men.

To be perfectly clear, Sheriff, we are asking you to not only refuse to enforce Measure 114, but to stop—and, if necessary, ARREST—anyone who DOES try to enforce this tyranny in our county. We are asking you to tell the local gun stores under your protection that they can remain open and in business, and that you and your department will protect them from anyone who tries to come after them for doing so. We are asking you to pledge your protection to any individual who falls afoul of state law enforcement for violating Measure 114. We are, in short, asking that you do literally whatever it takes to truly protect the residents of Klamath County from the creeping authoritarianism of Salem and the busybody urbanites who rule this state through tyranny of the (slim) majority. We do not know how things will play out or the full extent to which we will have to resist the state, but we who have signed our names to this letter pledge that if you do your part in protecting the people of this county, we will have your back and will assist you and your department in stopping Measure 114 in any way we can. And we are confident that there are many, MANY more people in the county who feel the same.

Sincerely,
We, the undersigned residents of Klamath County.