Gov. Tina Kotek and Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum joined Thursday with gun control activists in Salem to call on state lawmakers to adopt bills that would prohibit the sale of ghost guns and raise the age to buy a semi-automatic rifle or shotgun from 18 to 21.
Other bills pending in the Legislature this session would give cities and counties the ability to prohibit concealed guns in their public buildings and on adjacent grounds and require schools to educate families on the necessity of safely securing guns at home.
“There is nothing more important to me this legislative session than supporting gun safety measures here in Salem,” Rosenblum told about 100 red-shirted Moms Demand Action volunteers gathered blocks from the Capitol as they prepared to lobby legislators.
“Oregonians don’t want thoughts and prayers anymore,” Rosenblum said, referring to the ubiquitous message that even she includes in her official statements after gun tragedies. “They want action. We want action. We’re going to make it happen.”
Hilary Uhlig, head of the Oregon chapter of Moms Demand Action, said the group working to end gun violence is buoyed by the number of what she called “gun control champions” elected and serving in the Legislature: 25 in the House and 15 in the Senate. Democrats hold the majority in both chambers.
“In previous years, we felt pretty limited,” Uhlig said. “But this year, we have so much support and momentum that we feel we can get more gun bills passed to protect Oregonians this session. They are just common-sense ways to save lives.”
Volunteers who attended Thursday’s rally included people who have lost mothers, sons, daughters and nephews in fatal shootings, including suicide.
Lakeridge High School sophomore Cara Chen of Students Demand Action said she was sickened that people appear to have become numb to shootings like the one that occurred last October outside Portland’s Jefferson High School, which wounded two students.
When she texted student organizers about the shooting, they responded that they were glad no one was more seriously hurt.
“When have our standards for what is and isn’t acceptable become so low?” she asked.
Lorraine Harris, whose 28-year-old son was fatally shot in Portland on Jan. 4, 2020, said this was her first time attending a Moms Demand Action event.
“Moms are tired of the losses,” said the Portland mother of six boys. “I’m tired of reading about all the young men being killed.” She said neighbors need to look out for one another and get involved to stem the violence.
“I’m right in the middle of it,” she said. “It’s all around me.”
The rally and lobbying on new gun control bills comes as a Harney County judge has temporarily blocked the voter-approved gun control Measure 114, which was to take effect in December.
Oregonians narrowly passed the measure calling for a permit to buy a gun and a completed criminal background check before a gun can be sold or transferred. It also would restrict the sale, manufacture and use of magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.
Despite the legal losses at this stage that have stalled Measure 114, Rosenblum said her office will be doing all it can going forward to defend the measure against challenges both in state and federal court.
Rosenblum also is seeking to hire a dedicated gun violence resource prosecutor and criminal investigator in the state Department of Justice to help coordinate work between police, mental health professionals, district attorneys and community leaders to ensure the state’s gun laws are pursued, such as the 2018 red flag law that allows police, spouses or immediate family or household members to petition a judge to prevent someone who poses a risk to themselves or others from having or buying guns.
Kotek said she will work in particular to support House Bill 2006, which would raise the age to buy semi-automatic rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21.
“My goal as governor is to make sure we follow through not only on the promises of those laws because they don’t do any good if they’re just some words on a piece of paper. They have to be implemented. They have to be enforced. They have to be funded,” she said.
Gun rights advocates, such as the Oregon Firearms Federation, also are working to galvanize their supporters and urge Republican lawmakers to block the legislative proposals as they continue to challenge Measure 114 in court. They’ve argued that Measure 114′s permit-to-purchase program wasn’t funded or even in place when the measure was set to take effect.
House Bill 3445, sponsored by Republican lawmakers representing Baker, Grant, Harney, Lake and Malheur counties and parts of Jefferson and Deschutes counties, attempts to try to roll back part of Measure 114, for example.
It would give counties the right to opt out of the permit-to-purchase requirement under Measure 114.
But even the Oregon Firearms Federation wrote on its website that it can’t understand how House Bill 3445 is an improvement.
“The problem is, while it removes sheriffs and chiefs of police as permitting agents, it replaces them with … nothing,” meaning a person wanting to buy a gun in a county that rids itself of the permit requirement would leave a prospective buyer who had to purchase a gun outside of that county with no avenue to obtain a permit to do so.
The gun control bills introduced and awaiting hearings include:
– House Bill 2005 would prohibit ghost guns, which are untraceable, and generally assembled at home with parts typically bought online. They also lack commercial serial numbers. The bill also would ban other untraceable guns, such as 3D printed firearms.
Rosenblum has been a strident supporter of this proposal, which didn’t get traction in the legislature in the prior session. She called these guns ‘“terrifying” because they’re not traceable if used in a crime and don’t show up in a metal detector.
– House Bill 2006 would raise the purchase age for semi-automatic rifles, other rifles and shotguns, from 18 to 21, with some exceptions for hunting rifles.
Under federal law, you must be 21 to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer. But to buy long guns, the federal minimum age is 18.
– House Bill 2007 would allow city and county governments to ban concealed handgun license holders from carrying guns in a public building or on the adjacent grounds. It would expand on a law adopted by lawmakers two years ago that prohibited concealed guns at the state Capitol and Portland International Airport and gave school districts the choice to opt in. Currently, 31 school districts bar concealed guns on their grounds.
– House Bill 3060 would establish a state income tax credit for buying a gun safe or lock.
– Senate Bill 551 would require school districts to notify families on district websites about how to securely store guns and medications. It would direct the Oregon Health Authority to make the safe storage information available to school districts.
The two bills would expand on a secure storage law adopted two years ago that requires gun owners to store their firearms in a safe or gun room or to use a trigger lock to ensure a gun can’t be fired when not in use
Sen. Janeen Sollman, D- Hillsboro, introduced Senate Bill 551. A public hearing is set next Tuesday before the Senate Education Committee.
The bill says more than 85% of school shooters got their gun from home or from a friend or relative, and more than 75% of guns used in youth suicide attempts and unintentional injuries are stored in the home of the victim, a relative or friend.
Simone Nagle of Portland said she and her family were too late to understand how deeply her mother was suffering from depression. In March 2013, Nagle called police when her mother didn’t show to watch Nagle’s 7-month-old daughter.
“In a moment of desperation, she took a gun that had been in my family’s home for over a decade and she shot herself,” Nagle said.
Nagle is now part of Moms Demand Action and works as a mental health therapist. “For a person with access to a gun, there isn’t time to think, reconsider or be interrupted — their life is over before they have a chance to think it through,” she said.
Oregon Firearms Federation is opposed to Senate Bill 551. “If the state is going to mandate that schools provide information on the storage of firearms, the state should also mandate that schools provide students with non-biased and professional information on the safe handling of firearms,” it wrote on its website.
The federation also criticized the move to further restrict concealed gun license holders at a time when gun violence has increased in Portland and surrounding cities. “CHL holders are not now and have never been a problem,” the federation said.
After Thursday’s event, held at the Willamette Heritage Center, some Moms Demand Action volunteers signed up to meet with lawmakers, while others wrote postcards to send to their legislators seeking their support of the gun control bills. Moms Demand Action is part of the gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots network.
— Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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