Editorial: Oregon should build on gun safety progress

Finally, the horror was too much. Until last week, it seemed that nothing could move Congress to take meaningful action for gun safety. Even as 6-year-olds, congregants, high schoolers and concertgoers were gunned down, no tragedy seemed too ghastly for Congress to sidestep.

But somehow, that changed after the sickening massacre of fourth-graders and their teachers in Uvalde, Texas last month – which came just 10 days after the racism-fueled mass murder of shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket. Congress couldn’t look away anymore. Last week, first the U.S. Senate, followed by the U.S. House passed with substantial margins legislation to help keep guns out of the hands of those who would seek to misuse them.

In reality, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is modest in scope and long overdue. It focuses on strengthening background checks for those younger than 21, broadening the category of domestic violence offenders who could be barred from having guns and funding mental health services, school security and states’ crisis intervention programs. But as limited as the changes may be, the legislation represents true progress – a bipartisan acknowledgment, finally, that doing nothing would continue to be a death sentence for more and more Americans.

This, however, cannot be the end of gun safety efforts. While additional federal legislation would be the best course of action, we cannot wait a few more decades for the next significant reform to come. Oregon legislators can and should make 2023 a session to enact additional legislation that ensures greater safety for the public while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun-owning Oregonians.

Certainly, many Oregonians own guns for hunting, personal protection or other reasons and exercise their rights responsibly. And Oregon has made significant gains in recent years to address situations where problems can arise, including passage of a red-flag law that allows removal of weapons from someone at risk of harming themselves or others; requiring safe storage of weapons; and closing the “boyfriend loophole” that Congress is only now addressing. But our gun violence epidemic, that has turned public places into shooting ranges and in which guns are the leading cause of death for kids and teens, reveals the need for more action as part of a comprehensive approach. Only by weaving together multiple laws, social programs, mental health supports and smart enforcement will communities create a system that promotes public health and safety and supports responsible gun ownership.

Addressing gun violence, as well as improving behavioral health access, were among the priorities for 2023 even before last month’s tragedies, House Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, told the Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board. Rayfield has tasked four members of his caucus to explore possible gun safety bills, including those adopted in other states. To that end, they should look to Oregon’s neighbors, Washington and California, which are among seven states that have raised the minimum age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle to 21 from 18 years old.

Under federal law, licensed gun dealers may sell handguns only to people 21 years or older. However, those as young as 18 are permitted to buy shotguns and rifles – including the military-style semiautomatic rifles that have become increasingly popular in the past decade – and have been used by under-21 killers in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012; Parkland, Florida in 2018; Uvalde, Texas last month.

In fact, the Parkland shooting, in which a 19-year-old killed 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was the impetus for Florida to raise its minimum purchasing age from 18 to 21 for such weapons.

And two weeks after Parkland, national retailers Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods announced their plans to refuse firearm sales to anyone under 21. Unfortunately, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries declared that stance violated the state’s anti-discrimination law. Legislators have so far done nothing to provide an exception for firearm sales the way they have for tobacco.

Legislators should also keep an eye on efforts to ban the sales of high-capacity magazines – a prohibition already in place in California and poised to begin in Washington on July 1. Currently, organizers of Initiative Petition 17, which would ban sales of magazines holding more than 10 rounds and require permits for gun buyers, are gathering signatures to put the initiative on the November ballot. With about 92,000 signatures on hand, the campaign has two more weeks to meet the 112,000-plus minimum. Oregonians can learn how to add their signatures by going to lifteveryvoiceoregon.com. But if time runs out on the campaign, legislators should look to take up the cause.

Mass shootings are only a small portion of the gun violence epidemic, which includes persistently high suicides and record homicides in cities across the country. The proliferation of self-assembled “ghost guns” is another concern in need of attention. And legislation is only one piece of the solution. Truly addressing the myriad ways that gun violence is ripping through communities will require investment in the mental, emotional, economic and social health of our community and partnership with law enforcement to prevent crime and ensure accountability for offenders.

But the breakthrough in Congress should give legislators in Oregon encouragement to move forward. The need for progress has never been so clear.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board