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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2018)
SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM ܂ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018 ܂ 3B Petitions fire back at assault weapons Connor Radnovich Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK The three chief petitioners for an ini- tiative that would restrict the sale, pro- duction and ownership of assault weap- ons and high-capacity magazines filed several thousand signatures March 26 to move their proposal forward. They were joined by a few dozen high school students and other advocates for stricter gun control, energized in re- sponse to the recent shooting in Park- land, Florida, and this weekend's inter- national March for Our Lives. "There are high schools just like (ours) and kids just like us getting killed in their place of education, which is ab- solutely insane to me," said Abigail Brown, 15, of Lake Oswego. "I just want to feel safe in my school and I want the rest of the children in this country to also feel safe." Supporters arrived on a yellow school bus with a box containing 3,443 signa- tures, meeting up with others who ar- rived at the Capitol earlier. The group sang "Give Peace a Chance" while walk- ing the few hundred feet from the front steps to the Secretary of State's Election Division office. If the Secretary of State verifies that there are at least 1,000 valid signatures, the Attorney General will begin the bal- lot title drafting process on April 10. Initiative Petition 43 was filed March 22 by an interfaith group of religious leaders from Portland. It replaced pet- ition 42, which was filed three days ear- lier but subsequently withdrawn. There are no major differences be- tween the proposals, which would ban the sale of assault weapons and high- capacity magazines if the measure was passed by voters. It would require cur- rent gun owners to do one of the follow- ing with applicable firearms or high-ca- pacity magazines: register them with the state, sell them to a registered deal- er, remove them from the state, render them inoperable or surrender them to law enforcement. Breaking this law would constitute a Class B felony. “We know that support for an assault weapon ban has been growing since Sandy Hook,” said Penny Okamoto, ex- ecutive director of Ceasefire Oregon. “The Legislature has had five years to act on this.” As defined in the initiative, an “as- sault weapon” includes: semi-automat- ic rifles and pistols with a detachable magazine and one of several modifica- Francis Binford-Ross rides on the shoulders of her father Chris Ross for the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, in downtown Salem. Over 2,000 people joined the student-led event, which called for stricter gun laws in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., shooting. MOLLY J. SMITH/STATESMAN JOURNAL tions, semi-automatic shotguns with grip and stock modifications and semi- automatic rifles under 30 inches in length. High-capacity magazine is defined as any feeding device that can hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The proposal’s announcement sparked outrage from conservative Ore- gonians. They called this proposal an infringement on the Second Amend- ment and a realization of a long-held be- lief that the government would some- day try to take away its citizens' fire- arms. Oregon Firearms Federation Director Kevin Starrett said that this movement is the result of well-funded, far-left or- ganizations that are exploiting impres- sionable children to attack the Constitu- tion. "It's frightening that so many young people are blindly following puppet masters and actually demanding fewer rights," Starrett said in an email. He added that the shooting at Mar- jory Stoneman Douglas High School wasn't the result of someone having ac- cess to a gun. Rather, it happened be- cause of systemic failures and actions among those in power to ignore obvious warning signs. "We think it's pathetic that a well- oiled propaganda machine can bury all these facts," Starrett said. Pastor Mark Knutson of the Augusta- na Lutheran Church in Portland, one of the chief petitioners, said that they have been working on this proposal since July 2016. His group was aiming for the 2020 general election ballot, but he said the surging of young voices demanded they move more quickly. Students will be involved in the pet- ition at every level of planning and gath- ering signatures, Knutson said. He told them that they are going to get hands- on experience running an initiative, in- cluding receiving the same training from the Secretary of State's office that the petitioners received. "These young leaders can't wait," he said. But the accelerated timeline is caus- ing some to doubt if they will be able to collect the necessary 88,184 valid signa- tures in time to qualify for November's general election ballot. The deadline to submit signatures is July 6. The initiative will almost certain- ly be appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court, and resolution of these cases usually takes between two and six months. Petitioners cannot gather signatures during a legal appeal, and they could have very little time left to do so once the review concludes. Moreover, the appeal may not be complete by the July 6 deadline because the petition may not even become eligi- ble for the appeal process to begin until mid- to late May. "I'm concerned about the timeline," Okamoto said. "We might not make it." If they don't get the initiative on the ballot this year, Okamoto said, they will push for passage of the underlying pro- posal as a bill during the 2019 legislative session. If they didn't succeed there, they try with another initiative in 2020. "It's a big challenge," Knutson said. "But as people of faith, we have stories of the impossible that became real." Don was born in 1944 Canton, Ohio, where he lived until the age of 12. He then moved with his father, mother, and sister to California and became a cos- metologist. He worked styling hair in Long Beach and Redondo Beach, and in the MGM Grand Casino in Reno, Neva- da. He owned and operated his own bar- ber shop, Selway’s Barber Shop, in Sil- verton for 20 years before retiring. Don loved boxing, every style of mu- sic, playing shuffleboard and spending time near the ocean. He is survived by his daughter, Chloe Etzel and husband Clinton Etzel, of Sub- limity and grandsons Dominic and Saw- yer Etzel. Friends of Donald Selway are invited to a celebration of life gathering at 6 p.m. April 14, 2018, at Your Break in Sil- verton. OBITUARIES Donald Howell Selway Donald Howell Selway passed away peacefully on March 16, 2018, with the love of his family and friends nearby. 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