Civil rights groups cry foul as Oregon lawmakers set to roll back tear gas restrictions

Lawmakers in Salem are scheduled to vote Thursday on legislation that will roll back restrictions they put in place on the use of tear gas and impact munitions less than a year ago.

Restrictions took effect in July 2021 that limited the use of tear gas to declared riots and banned the use of less lethal munitions for crowd control. The legislation, House Bill 2928, was part of a package of police reform bills introduced in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

The revised bill, House Bill 4008, would ease some of those restrictions by lifting the requirement for a riot declaration and replacing it with a requirement that the weapons’ use is “objectively reasonable” to protect against threats to life, injury or to safely control a dangerous or unlawful situation.