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Portland Observer
Online
‘City of Roses’
Volume XLV
Number 6
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • February 10, 2016
Established in 1970
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Rev. Sharon Risher (second from left), who lost her mother and two cousins in the mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina last June, visits the Oregon State Capitol
to testify in support of a proposed law to ban gun sales when background checks are incomplete. Supporting her are House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson (left)
Gov. Kate Brown (second from right) and Paul Kemp, a member of the Everytown Survivors Network whose brother-in-law was killed at the 2012 Clackamas Town Center
shooting.
Gun Sales Loophole Targeted
Massacre victims’ relative testiies to lawmakers
O livia O livia
T he P OrTland O bserver
A woman who lost her mother and two cousins in the
shooting massacre in Charleston, South Carolina, made a
dramatic appearance at the state capitol in Salem to testify
in support of a proposed state law to ban gun sales when
background checks are incomplete.
Rev. Sharon Risher lew across the country to appear
before lawmakers on Thursday to ask them to close the so-
called “Charleston loophole” by requiring that gun buyers
go through a background check with no time limit.
by
Risher’s mother, Ethel Lance, and cousins, Susie Jack-
son and Tywanza Sanders, were killed in the June 2015
shooting at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal
Church, when Dylann Roof, killed nine parishioners.
She told the Oregon House Judiciary Committee
that the deaths could have easily been prevented if only
Roof had been forced to wait for a background check
before being handed the gun he would use to shoot up
her church. He was able to get the gun, despite an earli-
er drug conviction, because the background check took
more than 72 hours.
Oregon requires a similar criminal background check
before any irearm or transfer can be completed in or-
der to make it more dificult for violent criminals and
domestic abusers to get their hands on a gun. However,
if a background check takes longer than three days, the
buyer can purchase the gun anyway, even if they are ulti-
mately found to be ineligible due to a criminal or violent
background.
Risher testiied about how much damage such a loop-
hole had brought to Charleston and her community. She
joined other activists to ask that the loophole be closed
C OnTinued On P age 15