Owner and Managers of Ace Hardware Sat Down for Candid Conversation about Measure 114
By Garrett Christensen on Tuesday, December 13th, 2022 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
BAKER CITY, LA GRANDE, PENDLETON– Measure 114 has been a hot topic since election night in Oregon. And while the justice system continues to work through challenges, lawsuits etc., gun dealers and business owners are concerned.
Elkhorn Media Group (EMG) sat down recently with Scott Thatcher (ST), owner of Ace Hardware in Baker City, La Grande and Pendleton, Phil Gillette (PG), La Grande Sporting Goods Manager and Craig Binder (CB) La Grande Store Manager to discuss concerns they have regarding Measure 114, how is affecting business, and what other concerns this Measure has brought to light since it’s passing.
(EMG) “Scott, Phil and Craig, thank you all for sitting down to speak with me today. There have been a lot of questions, concerns and comments recently regarding Measure 114.
While there is a percentage of the Oregon population that is in favor of this measure, there is a large percentage, especially here in Eastern Oregon that oppose it for a number of reasons. Citizens have voiced concerns about the ramifications of this measure, how it will affect them personally, their communities and businesses.
As a locally owned business who deals with guns, ammo, etc. Since the passes of Measure 114, how has it affected your business?”
(PG) “So far, business sales are through the roof, people are a little more uptight, people are a little more scared. I think the reality of this bill has woke a lot of people up. I think a lot of people said, oh, it’ll never pass. And here we are. It’s been a challenge to be able to keep the shelves full of some product and then wondering, okay, what’s the next stage of when do I stop buying, am I gonna get stuck with product? Are we gonna have enough product? There’s a lot of unknowns and still at the same time, walking that tightrope with your customers that are demanding and wanting and they don’t understand the big picture of seeing what we’re dealing with too.
It can be really tough because so many people are really avid about their second amendment, their gun ownership. The problem is, is that there’s so much social media out there, with so many different directions of the same topic. Who’s right and who’s wrong. You know, as a person trying to run the business it’s tough because we don’t have any leadership. The people that I should trust to be my leaders, I can’t. I’ve sent out, I can’t tell you how many emails to Oregon. I say all the different government entities out there that should have an answer for us as a business owner. Our attorney general, our governor and I’ve gotten zero response back. And this, goes back to a couple months. So, then I’m kind of scared, I don’t wanna do the wrong thing and be out of a job or put our business under. It’s really a huge unknown.”
(EMG) “So when we talk about things like the magazine capacity, how does that affect your customers? How does that affect hunters? How does that affect people who have permits?”
(PG) “It affects us all. It affects our law enforcement. It affects probably the majority of the, the semi-automatic firearms that most people own are beyond the 10 rounds. Well, they don’t, some of those don’t even make 10 round magazines for those firearms. To be honest, not that 10 rounds really matters. If I carry three 10 round magazines, I’ve got 30 rounds. So, you know the quantity that a magazine holds is not gonna determine whether you live or die in a screwed up situation. That being said, the person behind that weapon is gonna make that difference.
I’m sure from just a few law enforcement that I have talked to, I asked the question. Do you feel comfortable protecting me out on the streets with 10 round mags? And their answer is absolutely not. Well, if they can’t, then why should I? And so for me, that’s, that’s a huge red flag.
You know, if I’m, I have a concealed weapon. So does huge quantity of this population in Eastern Oregon. What 10 rounds for some people may not feel adequate, especially if you’re dealing with more than one assailant or a criminal, but it’s definitely, it’s got people very, very tight. Now that this is all gonna hit, what do people do with all this and, and who’s gonna reimburse them? It’s a huge violation of the second amendment. The Second Amendment’s huge. I served in the military, you know, the constitution for us is huge. That’s what we honor and fight for.
I think it’s just a huge violation and, and it needs to be re-looked at. The problem I see with this is we have people in our leadership, in our government, such as our Attorney General. On Friday in front of a circuit in front of the judge, flat out lied to the judge. Why isn’t she in jail? We’re not holding anybody accountable for all these stages. This bill should have never made it to be voted on. We go back and look at the things that we’ve put ourselves into. For example, we allow people to vote, I believe in voting, the problem is, is when we don’t disclose everything about the bill, it’s like somebody in Congress hanging a 10,000-page bill, but we haven’t read it, but we wanna vote on it. When we voted for, uh, hound hunting eliminated in 1992, people went on total emotions. , this has probably done 90% on emotions and not facts. And that makes it really tough, especially when your government leaders are going in a direction and based on emotion and not the facts because they have an agenda or whatever that might be.”
(CB) “Well they don’t even know how they’re going to implement, teach the classes to get a permit, what’s in it, I think they put the cart way ahead. I liken it to the last couple of years with Covid and all this disinformation and, and you’re getting information from every different direction and you’re just turning in circles. You’re looking for directions. You have no direction, and yet you are, you as a business owner is being held accountable and it’s like, to what? To what standard, how do I comply, Even if I wanted to comply and believe me, it’s against the second amendment but I don’t even know how to comply because you haven’t even written a law that is able to be enacted at this point.”
(PG) “Looking at this, they’re talking 40 million to 50 million for the infrastructure of this, just for the, just for the first year. It’s gonna take probably a year for ’em to get anybody set up to even possibly give what they call a class. I have concealed weapon permits in Utah, Oregon allows me to carry in, you know, up to I guess about 40 states. I’ve been in the military, got a DD-214, I’ve been trained, I kind of question what this class is gonna do for one over the other. We haven’t had any problems at this point. We have more people dying in this state by drugs, but we’re not doing a darn thing about, we’re passing more laws along drugs to be sold. So, I there again, say it’s an emotional agenda.
One of the biggest takes I have off this that I think needs to be talked about because I believe, I mean, I don’t wanna see people die. Schools! Safety zones! Safety zones, first off it’s been proven safety zones don’t work. So why do we keep calling ’em. Second off, I know hundreds in just this county alone, maybe more than that, Veterans specifically, who have a good record, even those who aren’t a veteran who would love to volunteer once a month to sit in front of our middle school, our grade school, and protect it. But we still have not done anything about that. It’s still, it always gets talked about and then it’s brushed under the rug and then nothing ever happens.
I wanna see that happen. I would support that tenfold and we can get rid of the so-called, I don’t like calling ’em mass shootings, I call it somebody who’s going in a safety zone. If a, if a person, majority of these people, you know, they could have stopped a lot of these actions before they ever happened, but we don’t ever hold anybody accountable, that being said, most of these people, if they knew they were gonna approach a school or a bank or something, , that’s what we call safety zone. And they knew they were gonna get confronted right off the get-go by an armed individual. You know what, most of the time they’ll never go there because they, that’s not what their intention is to begin with, and that’s not gonna achieve what their objective is. So why aren’t we doing that?”
(EMG) “What does the future look like right now if the measure ends up being implemented as written? What do your shelves look like? What do your employees look like? What do your customers look like?”
(ST) “Well, fortunately in our business that we’re in, we are very diversified. I mean, guns is a big part, but it’s not the biggest part. So having a hardware store is, you know, in the spring all the stuff for lawn care and paint is huge for us.
We are going to be okay because we’re diversified. Now if I had just a gun shop only, then I would have some major concerns.”
(PG) “I’ve been in this business for a long time. I can adapt because of what Scott has built here, but you’re gonna have a lot of people leaving this state. It’s already on people’s minds guarantee. People have already made phone calls to look at properties.
Hunters coming, there is going to be a lot of people not coming here. It’s a lot of lost revenue. Here in Eastern Oregon, we are the hub of Oregon for both non-resident and resident hunters to come here and enjoy the recreation and well, that goes so far beyond coming in our store and buying a box of shells. It’s restaurants, it’s grocery stores, it’s the hotels, it’s gonna affect everybody in all aspects.”
(CB) “There are other businesses that deal with the firearm industry as well. A lot of machinist shops. They won’t lose their business entirely, but they’re gonna lose a percentage of their business. Maybe employees get laid off. I know of a gentleman in Central Oregon right now, he doesn’t know but he’s thinking 20 to 30% of his business is gonna go away. Well, if that happens, that’s a couple of guys, you know, so it, it’s more than just the, the local gun store that it’s gonna affect.”
(ST) “We’re getting ready to go to a buying show or probably our major one, the first week in February in Reno, and we’re like, What do you do? We usually buy hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of guns at this show. And of course, I’m not gonna buy guns that I’m not able to sell. So, I have this window of opportunity of two or three days. Are we gonna know by then? And then if everything comes to fruition after the show am I gonna be able to get, get the product then?”
(PG) “If you want to go out and shoot people, you’re gonna be able to go find a gun. They’re not gonna look at the law. They don’t care. Simple as that.
All this is doing is making it harder for law-abiding citizens.”
(CB) “It’s definitely an infringement on your right to keep and bear arms and I don’t suspect this is going to be an issue that’s going to be quieted down anytime soon.”
(EMG) “Thank you all for taking the time to speak with me and help our followers and listener understand some of the issues that you are also facing regarding the unknown of what will happen in the end with Measure 114.”
