Tuesday
Editor in chief: Jack Clifford
Managing Editor: Jessica Blanchard
Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Room 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: ode@oregon.uoregon.edu
EDITORIAL EDITOR; MICHAEL J. KLECKNER opededitor@journalist.com
Gun control
is a matter of
■t: Ji
A STEREOTYPE
REBELS
Gun control ... I’m a firm believer in it.
I truly believe that anyone who owns a gun
should damn well know how to control it.
I was raised in rural (insert Hicksville here)
Oregon and am descended from a long line of Irish cops,
so it’s no huge surprise that I learned to shoot a handgun
and rifle by the ripe old age of 12. And though I don’t
personally hunt, I took classes to receive my hunter safe
ty card while in middle school.
Under the close supervision and instruction of my fa
ther, an avid sportsman, I not only learned to properly
load and fire a weapon, but I also learned the respect
for the weapon that must accompany gun handling.
But our Second Amendment right (for those
non-poli-sci majors, the right to bear arms) be
came even more near and dear to me last year.
To make a very long, emotional story very
short, a man from Sweet Home broke into our
neighbor’s house looking for an escape vehi
cle after shooting two people in a dispute,
killing one. While he held a gun to the
head of one of our neighbors, the other
escaped, seeking refuge in my parents’
home. My parents weren’t home, only
my 16-year-old brother Matt, who
was baby-sitting mv 6-year-old little
brother.
When the neighbor — a
13-year-old boy — man
aged to relay the situa
tion and immediate
danger to Matt, Matt
and the two boys hid in
his closet, called 911
and then loaded his
own weapon.
A side note here: My
parents own a gun safe
containing what many
city dwellers would be
lieve to be a small arse
nal, but the purpose of
Bryan Dixon Emerald
tne sate is tor protecting the weapons from theft in case
of a robbery, as well as keeping them out of the hands of
little ones. As a result, my brother didn’t know the com
bination that would have allowed him access to a hand
gun.
So Matt loaded his .22 rifle, basically a bird gun, and
prepared to defend his house and family. And I wish I
could conclude this story by saying the murderer left our
neighbor’s house and disappeared into the night, but he
didn’t.
This criminal broke down our front door — yes, he
broke the frame of the door using his body weight — and
stepped across the threshold of our home and our sense
of security. When he ran past the hallway where my
brother was positioned, guarding the doorway of the
room where my little brother and the neighbor hid, the
man pulled his 9 mm on Matt and fired.
Thank God the chamber was empty, and my brother
had the presence of mind to fire his own weapon before
the intruder had time to reach his second weapon. Matt
fired two shots, one of which lodged in the wall. The oth
er bullet found its mark and pierced the intruder’s upper
body, broke through his torso and hit the wall behind
him.
But the intruder didn’t fall. Instead, he ran through our
house and escaped through the back door. Despite bleeding
from the bullet hole and exit wound, he managed to terror
ize two mote houses. In the first, another neighbor scared
him off with a weapon, and in the last he stabbed an elder
ly lady (who survived), stole her van and escaped.
After two weeks on the loose — two fear-filled weeks
when we thought the intruder might return in retaliation
— he was apprehended and charged with 27 felonies, in
cluding murder, assault, breaking and entering, using a
deadly weapon, etc.
I cringe to imagine how that night might have ended
differently for my family if my brother had not possessed
the skill and confidence with which to use a weapon.
Matt’s confidence and skill came from being raised in a
household where people respect firearms. Do I believe
that our problems could be solved by regulating gun use?
No. There’s a saying, “When you outlaw guns, only out
laws have guns.”
Addressing a more controversial side of the issue of
gun control, I don’t support the sale of weapons without
background checks, or to minors — as I believe the re
sponsibility of teaching a minor to use a weapon belongs
to the parent. In light of the tragedy of school shootings,
it’s obvious we have a problem, but»it isn’t about gun
control; it’s about controlling our youth. We need to stop
using accessibility to weapons as the excuse for why we
too regularly read stories of kids firing guns in school.
Fundamentally, it goes back to the role played — or in
most of these situations, not played — by the parents.
People kill people, and that has nothing to do with a
lack of knowledge or control of firearms, but with a lack
of respect for human life.
Rebecca Newell is a columnist for the Oregon Daily Emerald. Her
views do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald. She can be
reached at rnewell@gladstone.uoregon.edu.
CORRECTION
In Monday’s story on arson (“Series of arson crimes baffle Eugene
Police Department,” ODE, May 7), a copy-editing error made it
sound as though the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility
for a recent arson. The group did not claim responsibility.
The fourth full paragraph of the story on page 5 should have read,
“Romania Chevrolet was allegedly targeted in June by Jeffrey
Luers and Craig Marshall. In a communique distributed by Port
land-based Earth Liberation Front spokesman Craig Rosebraugh,
an anonymous group claimed responsibility for the recent Roma
nia arson and said it set the fire out of respect for Luers, Marshall
and the environment.”
The Emerald regrets the error.