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--> --> Felon firearm ban upheld By Charles E. Beggs Associated Press Writer SALEM - The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld a state law barring felons from owning guns and also ruled the law applies to all firearms, not just concealed ones. In the case from Douglas County, Mark Hirsch was convicted of violating the law after he took a rifle to a gun shop to have it worked on while he was on probation for a past felony conviction. The state Supreme Court in 1959 and 1996 said the state could constitutionally bar felons from possessing concealed weapons in rulings that didn't specifically deal with long guns. Hirsch argued that the law violates the Oregon Constitution's provisions guaranteeing citizens the right to have arms. The Supreme Court, the appeals court said Wednesday, never has spelled out the "scope of the state's authority to regulate possession or use of arms." In ruling against Hirsch, the appeals court said the nation's early history indicates the framers of the state constitution in 1857 would have intended to prevent felons from having any firearms. "The right to bear arms never has been understood to be absolute," the court said in an opinion by Judge Jack Landau. The American colonies barred gun ownership by people "regarded as threats to public order," he said, and when the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights was ratified, every state had passed some form of gun control. Landau said it's likely that framers of the Oregon Constitution, in view of the laws in effect elsewhere at the time, "regarded felons as non-citizens, not entitled to the constitutional guarantees" of the rights to vote and to bear arms. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing