Street Roots • April 14-20, 2017
E d ito r ia l
Page 3
Let’s end the lethal loophole in Oregon’s gun laws
t happened again. Another case of domestic violence
resulting in a murder. Just this week in San Bernadino,
■Calif., a man walked into his wife’s place of work - an
elementary school - and shot to death her, a student and
himself. Another student was injured.
He was her husband, he was her
abuser, and he had a gun.
Statistics compiled by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics and various
organizations show the pattern: A gun in the home where
there is domestic violence increases the risk of homicide
manyfold: by one academic study, abused women are five
times more likely to be killed by their abuser if their abuser
owns a firearm.
There are laws that prevent criminals from owning guns,
but there are also laws that allow convicted stalkers and
abusers to legally possess a gun right up until they kill. It’s
unconscionable.
Oregon Senate Bill 797 attempts to close that gap.
Currently, Oregon statute makes it unlawful for someone
to possess a firearm if they are menacing - stalking,
intimidating etc., - someone they have a legal relationship
with, which means being married to, having a child together
or having cohabitated. SB 797 expands that to protect
people of domestic violence even if they have not had that
specific definition of relationship. It’s dubbed the Boyfriend
Loophole. And SB 797 would make it unlawful for a person
who has been convicted of stalking to own a gun.
It’s about time. Because we as a society shouldn’t
I
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EDITORIAL
sanction lethal force to people who view human beings as
prey.
The gun lobby, fronted here by the Oregon Firearms
Federation, is taking the predictable stance in opposing any
legislation that regulates ownership, and multiple copies of
a form letter calling for this and other bills’ defeat was
presented to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
In sharp contrast to that impersonal, copied-and-pasted
statem ent penned by the Federation, is the very personal,
pervasive tragedy of domestic violence and its proven link
to public violence and murder, notably among women
seeking to escape abusive relationships.
In addition to SB 797, we strongly urge the Oregon
Senate to approve a House-passed measure that would
include the influence of domestic violence and abuse when
deciding sentences for people convicted of a crime.
Numerous statistics show that the majority of women
who are or have been in prison attribute their incarceration
to their relationship with an abuser.
There’s no question that gun laws are an imperfect tool,
and criminals will always attempt to thwart laws. It’s as old
as the hills. But let’s do all we can to ensure that the men
and women seeking to buy guns are at least better than the
people who beat and traumatize those they claim to love.
It’s time to acknowledge that domestic violence is among
the most pervasive forms of terrorism in our community,
and we must do all we can to prevent those responsible
from being armed.
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Contact Israel Bayer at israel@streetroots.org
Israel Bayer
We can get ahead of the curve on homelessness
oung people grow up understanding that having
people experiencing homelessness in th e ir city is
simply a fact of life. It’s a sad reality. The truth is mass
homelessness hasn’t always existed in American cities.
Saying that, it exists today and has become a normal part
of life for many people living and working in American cities.
Portland is no different. People are frustrated.
Compassion fatigue is real.
People believe homelessness can’t
be solved. They’ve given up on the
idea that government can do
anything to stop people from
sleeping on our streets.
What gives?
By Israel Bayer
Trying to convince people that
we are being successful at housing
people is a never-ending saga. It’s
true that we have collectively been able to accomplish great
things given our circumstances. Sadly, it still doesn’t change
the fact that there’s a hole in the bucket.
Given the fact that we’re facing massive state and federal
budget cuts - many nonprofits and others are preparing for
the storm of our lives. We understand the clear reality that
if many of the programs that were already underfunded on
the homeless and housing front are completely stripped
back we will be facing unprecedented homelessness.
Some would argue that we’re on the verge of facing a new
era of increased enforcement of homeless camps and new
investments in massive shelters - in many ways reverting
back to a place in the 1980s when the only answer to
modern-day homelessness was just that — the criminal
justice system and more shelter beds.
It led to an era where instead of investing in housing
stock for low-income people we started to build an entire
system of homeless services that worked not to solve the
housing crisis, but instead to simply manage the problem.
What to do?
Local communities have always grappled with how to plan
long-term while also navigating the complexities of having
thousands of people living on our streets. There’s no
question that we need to maintain and increase our
investments in affordable housing. In the meantime, if I
could wave a magic wand, this is what I think could be done
to help bridge the gap between our homeless neighbors and
the larger public:
First, we must start investing in more programs that
Y
DIRECTOR'S
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
Street Roots. You can
reach him at
israel @streetroots. org
or follow him on
Tw itter @israelbayer.
create income for people on the streets — especially
program s th a t show real resu lts helping solve th e problem s
that exist. I’m referring A trash pick-up service for people on
the streets.
It’s my opinion that people don’t see homeless people as
the problem. They see trash as the problem. An investment
to provide outreach and trash pick-up would generate
enormous amount of goodwill, help clean up our natural
areas and give people on the streets income. It’s not rocket
science.
Secondly, we need to continue to give organizations like
the Village Coalition, who are working with homeless camps,
the resources they need to be successful.
We more or less starve groups trying to actually organize
homeless camps. Turf wars between nonprofits,
personalities and larger political agendas get in the way of
actually just doing what’s right. There doesn’t need to be a
whole lot of bureaucracy in creating a handfull of positions
for people to help work with people on the streets to
maintain safe camps. Again, we’re not talking rocket science.
Lastly, working with government and the private sector
we must find a way to create more income opportunities for
people. We live in a world of sharing economies, a tech-
boom and a city that is working to build a green
infrastructure for decades to come. There has to be a way to
capture these intersections and give people the opportunity
to contribute to making Portland the city that works for
everyone.
The reality is homelessness on the street is going to get
worse before it’s going to get better, especially under this
current White House administration. If we aren’t getting
ahead of the curve and offering as many harm-reduction
approaches as possible, it’s going to continue to drive a
wedge into helping people get off the streets and
maintaining political will to end people’s homelessness.
I loathe the idea of ever fighting over 12-foot square slab
of concrete, increased law enforcement strategies and
creating more shelter beds because we feel like there’s no
other options. It’s a strategy that isn’t any more
sophisticated than the approaches used in centuries past.
Yes, centuries.
We can continue to build toward the resources needed to
both give people on the streets the best tools available given
their circumstances and continuing to chip away at creating
more affordable housing. It’s now or never. The storm is
lurking on the horizon and will hit us soon enough.
joanne@ streetroots.org
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