Jenna Longenecker described Thursday losing both her parents within four years of one another — her mother fatally shot at Clackamas Town Center and her father who died by suicide with a gun.
“This is not something that goes away,” she said. “This is not something that gets easier.”
Longenecker, 34, was the last witness called to testify in a federal trial on the constitutionality of Oregon’s voter-approved gun control Measure 114.
The measure bans the sale, transfer and manufacture of magazines holding more than 10 rounds, requires a permit to buy a gun and requires a completed criminal background check before any sale or transfer of a gun. Several gun rights groups, rural sheriffs and gun owners have challenged the measure in federal court.
Their lawyers didn’t cross-examine Longenecker but restated their move to strike her victim impact statement. They have argued that the relationship between Measure 114 and “general public safety” isn’t permissible under last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a New York gun case.
U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut denied their motion, finding the impact of gun violence relevant for evaluating the justification for the measure.
Longenecker, who is eight months pregnant with her second child, flew back to Portland from New Hampshire where she now lives to testify in support of Measure 114.
“I hope that by sharing my personal story today, I can help remind the court and help the court understand a little bit better about why this law was enacted in the first place,” she said.
Longenecker was 23 and in her first marketing job after graduating months earlier from University of Oregon when she spotted reports on her Twitter feed of a shooting unfolding at Clackamas Town Center on Dec. 11, 2012.
She called her mom, Cindy Yuille, just to make sure everything was OK but didn’t get an answer after four or five tries. When she reached her mother’s husband, Robert Yuille, at their Portland home, he told her: “Your mom went shopping.”
Hours later, when her 54-year-old mother didn’t return home, Longenecker learned she was one of two people fatally shot at the mall that afternoon.
She was killed while Christmas shopping when a masked gunman armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and multiple 30-round magazines began shooting. He fired for 22 minutes before sheriff’s deputies closed in on him in a stairwell while he was reloading his rifle, which he then turned on himself.
Four years later, Longenecker’s father, Michael Passalacqua, 58, died by suicide in a spiral of depression suffered after his ex-wife’s killing.
The sudden loss of each parent affected her differently.
“I felt my mom’s life was taken from her and there was this great injustice that had been committed,” Longenecker said.
Three days later, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred. Within weeks, Longenecker started to get involved with gun control groups and eventually testified before the Oregon Legislature in support of legislation to give judges discretion to remove guns from people who show signs they might shoot themselves or others. In 2016, she went to work in Washington, D.C. for Giffords, the nonprofit that’s led by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and dedicated to trying to curb gun violence. Thursday marked Longenecker’s first time testifying in a courtroom.
Longenecker said she had been aware that her father was diagnosed with depression but his illness worsened leading up to his death. He had quit work and, unknown to her, had bought a gun in July 2016. He shot himself that September.
His death keeps her up at night, she said, wondering, “What could I have done differently?”
Back then, she said she had no avenue to alert someone that her father could potentially harm himself, she said.
After court, she said, if Measure 114′s gun permit requirement had been in place in 2016, it might have dissuaded her father from trying to buy a gun. She said she also would have reported her dad as a danger to himself to local police, which also may have barred him from getting a gun permit.
“I think it’s really important to remind people that this issue of gun violence is not just about numbers and statistics,” Longenecker said. “This is a very real issue that’s happening in our communities and is having really lasting effects.”
She is now married with a young daughter. She struggles to avoid being overprotective in the wake of her mother’s death and said she may be reluctant to send her daughter to school when the time comes. She struggles with the void of her mother’s loss and the knowledge her children will never get to meet their maternal grandparents. She described her mother as fun, compassionate and “friends with everyone.”
She testified, she said, because she believes Measure 114′s regulations represent a common-sense way to reduce shootings.
It’s easy to think of gun violence, she said, as “this horrible thing that happens to other people.” That’s how she used to view it.
“One of the things that’s most frustrating to me is when people just say, ‘Oh, well you know, there’s nothing we can do.’ There are things we can do,” Longenecker said. “Things like Measure 114 are very reasonable steps that we can take that will help make a difference.”
The trial is to conclude Friday with closing arguments. It’s unknown when Immergut will release her written decision. The measure remains on hold from taking effect in a separate state case.
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Previous stories from trial:
—Oregon’s gun control Measure 114 gets federal court test
—City of Portland supports gun control Measure 114 as federal judge prepares to hold trial next week
— Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian
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