By C1 Staff
SALEM, Ore. — House Bill 4035, currently in front of Oregon’s House Judiciary Committee, would allow corrections officers to keep guns in their locked cars during the workday.
The practice is currently banned by the DOC, after a rule banning firearms on state properties was enacted in 2008, according to the Statesman Journal. Corrections officials interpreted that rule to include prison parking lots.
The same idea of allowing firearms in officers’ locked vehicles during work hours was presented in 2013, but never made it out of committee. Most people involved in this issue have said that it’s come up three or four times in the past.
One example used was that of Buddy Heron, the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution officer who was stabbed to death when he stopped to help a man who appeared to be a stranded motorist between Heron’s home in Helix and the prison in Pendleton. He was unarmed and overwhelmed by his 280-pound attacker.
DOC spokeswoman Betty Bernt said officials haven’t decided whether they will change the department’s gun policy. She called it a “surprise” to hear the bill on Monday.
“We thought we were still in discussion mode,” she said. “We’re still working through it.”