OPINION
6A
T HE
D AILY A STORIAN
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
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DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager
School-shooting threat
deserves serious action
Small-minded terrorism warrants
vigorous investigation, prosecution
‘S
chool lockdown” are words no child or parent ever
should have to hear. They are a symbol of this time,
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understanding: “School lockdown? Did the custodian forget
to lock the door after class Friday?” If only if was something
this innocent.
Last Thursday afternoon’s
frightening phone call to Long
Beach (Wash.) Elementary
School claiming that a mass
shooting was imminent set off
an impressive response. A lock-
down is, after all, a practiced
defensive strategy. A lockdown
is all about protection.
Students, teachers and staff
did what they needed to do, tak-
ing shelter behind locked doors,
keeping quiet, working to avoid
GUDZLQJDWWHQWLRQ/DZRI¿FHUV
from every agency hurried to all
the Peninsula’s schools, ready
to lay down their lives if neces-
sary to defend innocent people.
Everything worked as well as it
could. All these actions are wor-
thy of praise.
In reasonably short order, it
became apparent that all this
was someone’s idea of ... what?
Fun? Sadism? Political protest?
Much of an afternoon of class
time was lost, but no lives. Fear
and deep concern stabbed the
hearts of parents. Some chil-
dren were deeply traumatized
by the experience. We live in a
dire time when even small kids
know that evil can touch them in
the form of gunshots on a beau-
tiful spring day. It should appall
us all that this is true and that so
much innocence has been lost.
This crime, though not of the
same magnitude as an actual
school shooting, deserves to be
investigated and prosecuted to
the maximum extent possible. It
is incomprehensible that some-
one would so horribly break the
peace in such a manner. This
was, in its small-minded and
idiotic way, a form of terrorism.
We should live our lives in
awareness that this is a safe
place. Some miserable person’s
contemptible action must not be
permitted to taint local child-
hood. Living well is the best re-
venge, but it will feel even bet-
ter if an arrest is made and this
threat maker is locked up.
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015
Has the NRA already won?
By CHARLES M. BLOW
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I
t is now fair to ask whether the
1DWLRQDO 5LÀH$VVRFLDWLRQ LV
winning — or has in fact won
— this era of the gun debate in
this country.
Gun control
advocates have
tried to use the
horror that ex-
ists in the wake
of mass shoot-
ings to catalyze
the public into
action around
sensible gun re-
strictions.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
Charles
Blow
But rather than these tragedies
being a cause for pause in ownership
of guns, gun ownership has spiked in
the wake of these shootings.
A striking report released Friday
by the Pew Research Center re-
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Americans say that protecting gun
rights is more important than con-
trolling gun ownership, 52 percent to
46 percent.”
One of the reasons cited was
Americans’ inverse understanding of
the reality and perception of crime
in this country. As the report spells
out, in the 1990s, people’s percep-
tion of the prevalence of crime fell
in concert with actual instances of
violent crime. But since the turn of
the century, things have changed: “A
majority of Americans (63 percent)
said in a Gallup survey last year that
crime was on the rise, despite crime
statistics holding near 20-year lows.”
Furthermore, it used to be that the
people most worried about crime fa-
vored stricter gun control, but “now,
they tend to desire keeping the laws
as they are or loosening gun control.
In short, we are at a moment when
most Americans believe crime rates
are rising and when most believe
gun ownership — not gun control —
makes people safer.”
The report adds: “Why public
views on crime have grown more
dire is unclear, though many blame
it on the nature of news coverage,
reality TV and political rhetoric.
Whatever the cause, this trend is not
without consequence. Today, those
who say that crime is rising are the
most opposed to gun control: Just 45
percent want to see gun laws made
more strict, compared with 53 per-
cent of those who see crime rates as
unchanged or dropping.”
Another cause is most likely
the intermingling of politics and
KLJKSUR¿OHFULPHV$V7KH&KULVWLDQ
Wayne LaPierre, left, executive vice president of the National Rifle Asso-
ciation, speaks during the annual meeting of members at the NRA con-
vention April 11 in Nashville, Tenn. At right is Jim Porter, NRA president.
6FLHQFH 0RQLWRU reported in 2012:
It was after the Newtown shoot-
“As sure as summer follows spring, ing that President Barack Obama
gun sales rise after a mass shooting. established a task force, led by Vice
It happened after the shooting ram- President Joe Biden, to develop a
page at Columbine High School in proposal to reduce gun violence,
Colorado in 1999. It happened after which the president said he intended
the Tucson, Ariz., shootings last year to “push without delay.”
Those proposals,
that killed six. Now,
including expanded
after the killing of 12
background checks
people last week at a Those who
(which were charac-
movie theater in Auro-
say that
terized as “misguid-
ra, Colo., gun sales are
ed” by the NRA’s
spiking again — not
crime is
Chris Cox) and a
just in Colorado but
ban on some semi-
around the country.”
rising
are
automatic weapons,
It
continued:
were roundly defeat-
“Self-protection
is
the most
ed in the Senate, al-
part of the reason. But
opposed
though polls showed
a bigger factor, say
about 90 percent
gun dealers, is fear of
to gun
public approval for
something else: pol-
expanded
back-
LWLFLDQV VSHFL¿FDOO\
control.
ground checks.
their ability to enact
In
fact,
this
restrictions on gun
ownership and acquisition of ammu- month 7KH :DVKLQJWRQ 7LPHV re-
QLWLRQ:KHQDKLJKSUR¿OHVKRRWLQJ ported: “The American firearms
takes place, invariably the airwaves industry is as healthy as ever,
seeing an unprecedented surge
are full of talk about gun control.”
It appears to be an extreme exam- that has sent production of guns
ple of unintended consequences, or soaring to more than 10.8 million
a boomerang: The more people talk manufactured in 2013 alone —
about gun control, the more people double the total of just three years
buy guns. And not only do gun sales earlier.”
It continued: “The 2013 surge
surge, but apparently so does NRA
membership. As 7KH+XI¿QJWRQ3RVW — the latest for which the govern-
reported in 2013: “The National Ri- PHQWKDV¿JXUHV²FDPHLQWKH¿UVW
ÀH $VVRFLDWLRQ¶V SD\LQJ PHPEHU full year after the December 2012
ranks have grown by 100,000 in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary
wake of the December school shoot- School, signaling that the push for
ing in Newtown, Conn., the organi- stricter gun controls, strongly backed
by President Obama, did little to
zation told 3ROLWLFR.”
The report continued: “In the chill the industry despite the passage
week after the shooting, Fox News re- of stricter laws in states such as New
ported that the NRA was claiming an York, Maryland, Connecticut and
average of 8,000 new members a day. California.”
One may begrudge and bemoan
+LJKSUR¿OHPDVVVKRRWLQJVDUHRIWHQ
followed by periods of increased in- the fact, but it is hard to deny it:
terest in the NRA, but representatives The NRA appears to be winning this
said this rate was higher than usual.” round.
Oregon farmland The queen travels by van
outpaces stock market
‘T
Wisdom of land use planning
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hings look different
here” was an advertising
headline that Oregon adopted
some years ago. Unlike some
slogans, this was not over-
statement. Oregon does look
quite different from its coastal
neighbors. Drive north from
Portland into Clark County,
Wash., and you’ll see the
difference. Urban sprawl has
consumed rich farmland.
Unlike Oregon, Washington
has no statewide land use plan-
ning. Thus it has no effective
way to preserve farmland.
In King County you may see
remnants of a once vital agri-
cultural sector. In California
you see the same phenomenon.
Farmland propelled the
1973 Oregon Legislature to
enact statewide land use plan-
ning. Specifically it was the
rich alluvial soil on which
Charbonneau sits. After the
city of Wilsonville approved
the Charbonneau development,
state agriculture officials real-
ized this was land with topsoil
40 feet deep. Thus homes sit
atop some of Oregon’s richest,
prime farmland.
Writing in our sister news-
paper, the &DSLWDO 3UHVV, Eric
Mortenson reports that re-
search by a land use advoca-
cy group indicates “Oregon
farmland might be the best in-
vestment of the past 50 years.”
The American Land Institute
says that Oregon farmland has
appreciated at a rate high than
the stock market from 1964
through 2012.
In some parts of rural
Oregon, land use laws have
become contentious — not al-
lowing development of farm
land. The numbers in the
American Farmland Institute
research are a strong indicator
how farmers benefit from the
system.
For most Oregonians the
benefit is aesthetic. By pre-
serving agricultural land-
scapes — instead of letting
crop land be paved over —
our state protects its most
precious asset, which is liva-
bility. And the people get it.
Mortenson notes that seven
attempts to repeal statewide
land use planning have failed
at the ballot box.
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tion politicians — those
champion of the little guy.
who run not to be someone
Not easy to do when you
but to do something — is
and your husband have
exceedingly small. In our
for the last 25 years made
limo-liberal Davos-world
ASHINGTON — See lifetime: Ronald Reagan.
your home. Hence the van
Hillary ride in a van! And arguably, Barack
trek to Iowa, lest a Gulf-
Obama, although with him
Watch her meet everyday (as opposed to Reagan) a
stream 450 invade the vi-
Americans!
sual.
heavy dose of narcissistic
Clinton’s unchange-
Witness her ordering a burrito VHOIIXO¿OOPHQWLVDGPL[HG
ability,
however, is the
with
genuine
ideological
bowl at Chipotle! Which she did
Charles
source
of
her uniqueness
conviction.
Krauthammer
wearing shades, as did her chief
as a candidate: She’s a
Hillary Clinton’s prob-
aide Huma Abedin, yielding securi- lem is age, not chronolog-
¿[HG SRLQW 6KH LV ZKR
ty-camera pictures that made them ical but political. She’s been around she is. And no one expects — nor
look (to borrow from Karl Rove) like for so long that who can really be- would anyone really believe — any
fugitives on the lam, wanted in seven lieve she suddenly has been seized claimed character change.
Accordingly, voters’ views about
with a new passion to champion, as
states for a failed foreign policy.
she put it in Iowa, “the truckers that her are equally immutable. The only
There’s something surreal about I saw on I-80 as I was driving here”? variable, therefore, in the 2016 elec-
Hillary Clinton’s Marie Antoinette
Or developed a new persona. tion lies on the other side, where the
tour, sampling cake and common- She will, of course, go through the freedom of action is almost total. It
ers. But what else can she do? After motions. Her team will produce a all depends on who the Republicans
Barack Obama, she’s the best known “message,” one of the most corro- pick and how the candidate per-
SROLWLFDO ¿JXUH LQ$PHULFD 6KH KDV sive, debased words in the lexicon of forms.
Hillary is a stationary target. You
papal name recognition. Like Na- contemporary politics — an alleged
poleon and Cher, she’s universally synonym for belief or conviction, it know what you’re getting. She has
NQRZQE\KHU¿UVWQDPH$VIRUPHU VLJQL¿HVQRWKLQJPRUHWKDQDEUDQG- her weaknesses: She’s not a great
campaigner, she has that unshakable
queen consort, senator and secretary ed, marketing strategy.
inauthenticity problem and, regard-
of state, she has spent a quarter-cen-
ing the quality most important to get-
tury in the national spotlight — more
Hillary
ting elected, she is barely, in the mer-
than any modern candidate.
ciless phrase of candidate Obama in
She doesn’t just get media cov-
Clinton’s
2008, “likable enough.”
erage; she gets meta-coverage. The
But she has her strengths: dis-
staging is so obvious that actual
problem
cipline, determination, high intel-
events disappear. The story is their
ligence, great energy. With an im-
symbolism — campaign as semiot-
is age, not
mense organization deploying an
ics.
chronological
obscene amount of money. And be-
This quality of purposeful ab-
hind that, a Democratic Party united
stractness makes everything sound
but political.
if not overly enthusiastic.
and seem contrived. It’s not real-
That’s why 2016 is already shap-
ly her fault. True, she’s got enough
genuine inauthenticity to go around
She will develop policies. In ing up as the most unusual open-
— decades of positioning, framing, Iowa, she’d already delivered her seat presidential race in our time:
parsing, dodging — but the percep- top four, one of which is to take un- RQH FDQGLGDWH ¿[HG DQG IRUHJRQH
tion is compounded by the obvious accountable big money out of poli- the other yet to emerge from a wild
staginess of the gigantic political tics. This is rather precious, consid- race of a near-dozen contenders with
apparatus that surrounds her and di- ering that her supporters intend to none exceeding 20 percent.
So brace yourself for a glorious
rects her movements.
raise $2.5 billion for 2016 alone and
:K\ LV VKH UXQQLQJ LQ WKH ¿UVW that the Clinton Foundation is one Republican punch-up, punctuated
place? Because it’s the next inevita- of the most formidable machines by endless meta-coverage of the
ble step in her career path. But that’s ever devised for extracting money Democrats’ coronation march. After
not as damning as it seems. It can be from the rich, the powerful and the which, we shall decide the future of
our country. Just the way the Found-
said of practically every presidential unsavory.
candidate. The number of convic-
She will try to sell herself as ers drew it up.
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
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