Wednesday, October 21, 2015
OFF PAGE ONE
GUNS: The U.S. firearm homicide rate has been steadily dropping since 1993
Page 8A
East Oregonian
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ownership was part of the culture.
“That doesn’t mean there weren’t
problems with guns,” he said. An
eighth grade classmate was acci-
dentally shot and killed by his father
while hunting. A kid living nearby
was shot by his brother but survived.
A friend’s father committed suicide
with a gun. An elderly neighbor shot
his wife, then killed himself.
“Guns were very much part of
the culture, but so were gun deaths,”
Hare said.
Senior Trooper Kreg Coggins,
who works from the Oregon State
Police outpost in Enterprise, said he
interacts with armed, legal hunters
12 months of the year.
“I’m somewhat de-sensitized to
people who have guns,” he said.
“It’s kind of odd for them not to
have guns.”
Means of protection
In the rural West, help from sher-
iff’s deputies or state troopers may
be spread thin and miles distant.
Some residents, it’s fair to say,
own guns and keep them handy out
of a belief that they may need to
protect themselves, their families
and their livestock, equipment,
crops or other valuables.
Two-legged troublemakers are a
worry, but many rural Westerners
also share the landscape with
coyotes, cougars, wolves or bears.
Eastern Idaho rancher Brian
Mays, who leases a 300-acre private
pasture southeast of Henry’s Lake,
estimates grizzlies have killed 14
of his cows in the past four years
— four this season. He recently
rounded up some heavily armed
compatriots to help him scour the
brush for cattle, or bears.
“They’re not the warm fuzzy
creatures everybody seems to think
they are,” Mays said. “If urban
people could see how vicious they
are with their prey when they kill
them, it might wake them up.”
suburb, two members of the city
council and its city manager held
CHLs.
Open carry is legal in Portland,
but guns must be unloaded unless
the carrier has a concealed handgun
license, Portland Police Bureau
spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson said
in an email.
Portland police have responded
to 9-1-1 calls involving people
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Simpson said. Statistics on the
number of such calls are not readily
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respond based on information they
receive. Open-carry advocates such
as Goit, the Hermiston gun shop
owner, might not be received calmly
in cities.
“It is problematic in an urban
environment,” Simpson said, “as
it’s not something people are used
to seeing and arguably could put the
carrier at risk from another carrier
who may perceive a threat.”
Urban reality
It’s different in cities.
Some urban areas put up with the
occasional cougar scare or coyotes
carrying off cats, but most city wild-
life encounters involve raccoons or
possums, not wolves or grizzlies.
Gang shootouts are a danger
in some city neighborhoods. The
presence of unruly street kids and
unkempt homeless people, some of
them clearly mentally ill, may add
to urban unease about weapons or
an interest in possessing them.
The Oregonian newspaper
reported in 2013 that 1 in 16 Orego-
nians held a concealed handgun
license, or CHL. At one point in the
early 2000s in Gresham, a Portland
Armed with statistics
A report released in August by
the Pew Research Center, based
in Washington, D.C., documented
the urban-rural differences. Of
people living in urban areas, 60
percent believe it’s more important
to control gun ownership and 38
percent believe gun rights should
take priority. The results are
council meeting.
In a report to the city
council, Kerns estimated
the property could generate
$250,000 in revenue. Some
councilors noted the building
and land could be assessed
property tax if the city
divested them.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra at
asierra@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0836.
Continued from 1A
works department had been
cleaning out the debris,
including 14 empty propane
tanks, at least some of which
were suspected stolen prop-
erty.
He said law enforcement
had tried to make sure those
who were contacted about
moving out of the city were
given information about
available help, including the
free Kayak Public Transit
bus that can take people from
Umatilla to Hermiston for a
visit to the Agape House or
other resources.
“I really don’t want to in
any way diminish the plight
of the homeless population,
but this is not just someone
struggling to survive in the
woods,” Ward said. “These
are places that are unsafe to
live due to illegal activity
and unhygienic conditions.”
At the same time the
Umatilla Police Department
was directing people to
WATCHDOG: Wants membership to be even between parties
agency,” Johnson said.
One aspect of the
it was appropriated.
proposal that could generate
“I don’t think that we do opposition is Johnson wants
nearly as rigorous a job as membership to be split 50-50
we should in tracking where between Democrats and
those dollars go and how Republicans.
they’re spent,” Johnson said.
Another sticking point
The committee could also could be the cost. Although
follow up when agencies fail Johnson has not proposed
to implement suggestions by D VSHFL¿F EXGJHW IRU WKH
state auditors. For example, committee, she said “I would
employees at the Department give them access to lawyers,
of Administrative Services, I would give them access to
which houses the state data an audit function.”
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The Legislature already
problems at the data center has nonpartisan staff lawyers,
despite repeated warnings by budget staff and economists
auditors dating back to 2006. to forecast revenue and other
“This committee on impacts of legislation and
accountability would be policy.
in demanding agencies’
The Legislative Fiscal
conformance to management 2I¿FH ZKLFK ZRUNV RQ
letters, if there were letters budgets, is already short-
of improvement that were staffed, Johnson said.
issued with an audit that
“The fact of the matter is
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Continued from 1A
since 1994 have resulted in more
than 7,800 weapons being turned in
and destroyed.
Common ground
Executive
Director
Penny
Okamoto said the urban-rural gun
divide is not as deep as groups such
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would have people believe.
The vast majority of gun owners
support background checks, safe
storage of weapons and suicide
prevention programs, Okamoto
said.
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a ban on high-capacity magazines
and a limit of one gun purchase a
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said.
“We have a lot of common
ground,” Okamoto said. “People
are not opposed to responsible
gun ownership, and that’s the vast
majority of gun owners.
“There are a lot of things we can
do to reduce gun violence and stay
well within the Second Amend-
ment,” she said.
“I tell people gun violence is like
cancer,” she said. “There are a lot of
different kinds of cancer, and a lot of
different kinds of gun violence.
“You can’t cure all cancer with
one pill, and you can’t kill gun
violence with one law or one educa-
tion program.”
CAMPS: Trees cleared out along Hermiston Ditch
PENDLETON: Property could generate $250,000 in revenue
building on it with all the
Continued from 1A
maintenance, repairs, depre-
PLQH WKH YDOXH E\ ¿QGLQJ ciations etc.,” he said.
the prices of other vacant
Councilor
McKennon
buildings sold in the area.
McDonald wasn’t keen on
Plute also suggested the the idea, saying the property
city demolish the building, was too small for it to be
which he said wasn’t valu- worth the effort. The building
able without a tenant, and sell is 8,450 square feet.
the vacant land instead.
Kerns said there are addi-
“I’d be willing to bet you tional steps before the prop-
would make almost as much erty can be sold, including a
on a parking lot than with a public hearing at a future city
reversed in rural areas, with 63
percent saying gun rights are more
important. Suburban residents were
evenly divided on the question.
The question of whether to ban
the sale of military-style assault
weapons also illustrates the divide.
Sixty-two percent of urban residents
favor a ban, while agreement drops
to 56 percent of suburban residents
and 48 percent of rural residents,
according to the Pew report.
But a greater percentage of
rural and suburban residents — 80
percent and 81 percent, respectively,
compared to 76 percent of urban
residents — believe mentally ill
people should be banned from
having guns.
,QWHUHVWLQJO\ WKH 86 ¿UHDUP
homicide rate has been steadily
dropping since 1993, according to
the Pew study. Homicides involving
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per 100,000 people in 1993, but
dropped to 3.6 per 100,000 people
by 2010, according to the study.
Suicides account for 60 percent of
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75 percent in Oregon, according to
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The group, based in Portland,
describes itself as opposing gun
violence and advocating for reason-
able gun control laws. Among other
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voluntary gun turn-in events that
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the work that they’re doing,
and the amount of complexity
that now is out there in
agency land,” Johnson said.
“And by complexity, I mean
information
technology
projects.”
In addition, Johnson
would hand the committee
decision-making authority
over what state programs to
audit, which would mean
taking control away from the
Secretary of State.
Johnson said her proposal
was not intended as a crit-
icism of the Secretary of
State’s audits staff, whom she
described as “very capable
professionals.”
“But somebody is making
a policy decision about where
those audits ought to dig
into,” Johnson said, and she
believes lawmakers ought to
make that call.
move out of the camps along
the Umatilla River, a private
property owner in Hermiston
decided to clear out trees
along the Hermiston Ditch
behind Wal-Mart that had
often given shelter to some
of Hermiston’s homeless
population.
Hermiston
Police
Department Chief Jason
Edmiston said the burning
of the trees along the ditch
was not initiated by law
enforcement, but the prop-
erty owner did contact the
GHSDUWPHQWWRDVNLIRI¿FHUV
could be sent beforehand to
notify people of the plan to
destroy the trees. Edmiston
said the department assisted
in notifying people they
were on private property.
David Hughes of the
Agape House said when
cities or property owners
undertake an effort to clear
out a homeless camp it may
take care of that particular
site, but the people who were
living there almost always
just move to a different
place.
“Unfortunately that does
not solve the problem. You
need a long-range plan to
get them off drugs and off
the streets,” he said.
He said many chronically
homeless people have issues
with drugs and mental
health, but unfortunately the
state hasn’t given commu-
nities the resources to fund
mental health programs at
the level they are needed.
As the holiday season
approaches and people are
in a more giving mood,
Hughes said a donation to an
established charity such as
the Agape House, Salvation
Army or a church can do
more to help the area’s
homeless residents than
giving money to a person
asking for it on a street
corner.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
CONCEALED CARRY
PERMIT CLASS
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Nov. 11 th • 1:00 pm or 6:00 pm
Walk-Ins Welcome!
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360-921-2071
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Staff Sergeant
Joel Davis
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Veteran
Honoring those who have served and those
that are currently serving our country!
Example
Bring us a picture of your servicemen or servicewomen or veteran by November 5 th
along with the form below and we will include them in our “Veterans Day Salute”
on November 11 th in the East Oregonian and Hermiston Herald at no charge.
For more information, call Paula at 1-800-522-0255 or Hermiston Herald at 541-564-4530.
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Your Name
Your Address
Your Phone Number
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Deliver to:
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• Hermiston, OR
or e-mail to classifieds@eastoregonian.com
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