Two Harney County gun owners are asking the Oregon Supreme Court to weigh in on Measure 114, the voter-approved gun law they say violates the state’s constitution.

Joseph Arnold and Cliff Asmussen filed a petition on April 14, asking the state Supreme Court to take up the case. The two men are joined by the gun-rights groups Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation.

Though voters approved Ballot Measure 114 in 2022, the measure never went into effect, due to ongoing legal challenges.

Measure 114 would require people wishing to purchase firearms to undergo a permitting process — including mandatory training, fingerprinting, and psychological evaluations — require background checks before transfer of ownership can be completed, and ban magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Arnold and Asmussen argue that the measure violates Oregon’s constitution, which protects the right to bear arms, and unfairly targets law-abiding gun owners.

“This case presents the Court with the most significant and widely applicable firearm restriction in Oregon history,” attorneys for the pair wrote in their 88-page petition to the court.

More than one-third of Oregonians own a firearm, but Arnold and Asmussen argue that lengthy permitting processes and restrictions on magazines already owned by Oregonians would turn law-abiding gun owners into criminals.

“… BM114 turns the right to bear arms into a privilege for government to grant or refuse,” the petition reads.

A lower court in Harney County placed a permanent injunction, blocking the law, but the measure was restored by the Oregon Court of Appeals in March.

Arnold and Asmussen have asked the Supreme Court to take up the case and restore the lower court’s injunction, blocking the law from ever going into effect.

“If a right can be taken away simply because the government claims it promotes public safety, it is not a right at all,” the petition states.