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GUNS: Private sales have increasingly gone online
Page 8A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
other social connections than
at gun shoZs or Àea ParNets
The president’s action
³has potential iPpact ² the
degree or the type, it’s hard
to predict,” said University
of Pennsylvania professor
Susan Sorenson, who studies
violence prevention ³$nd
it’s really iPportant to
acNnowledge that we can’t
just have one change and
expect that to change things
wildly”
The president also called
for the hiring of Pore than
20 additional exaPiners
and other staff to process
the Pillions of EacNground
checNs received annually
Yet even with added
Panpower, there’s no way to
coPpletely eliPinate huPan
error liNe the clerical PistaNe
that allowed Dylann Roof,
the young Pan charged in
the Charleston, South Caro-
lina, church Passacre, to Euy
a weapon even though he
should have Eeen disTuali-
¿ed Eecause of a drug arrest
The White House did
not set a threshold for the
nuPEer of guns soPeone has
to sell to Ee covered Ey the
licensing and EacNground
checN reTuirePent %ut it
warned that people can Ee
charged with a federal criPe
punishaEle Ey up to ¿ve
years in prison for selling
as few as two ¿rearPs when
there is evidence they are
running a Eusiness, such
as selling weapons in their
original pacNaging and for a
pro¿t
Theresa O’RourNe of
Downers Grove, Illinois, said
she hopes OEaPa’s action
will deter illegal transactions
that have deadly conse-
Tuences Her Eest friend,
6-year-old JitNa 9esel, was
Nilled in 2011 Ey a stalNer
who had illegally purchased
a gun froP a seller he Pet
through $rPslistcoP, an
online gun site The seller
was sentenced to prison after
pleading guilty to an illegal
sale
“People do it now
Eecause it’s easy,” O’RourNe
said “%ut if we say upfront
that if you EreaN the law and
you are going to go to prison,
Post people are going to taNe
a step EacN and say, µYou
Nnow what" It’s not worth
it”’
She and other gun control
advocates said too Pany indi-
viduals PaNe a living selling
guns without oEtaining the
$150 license and following
reTuirePents to conduct
EacNground checNs, Neep
detailed sales records and
face federal inspections
Private sales ² often
carried out in person after
Internet
advertisePents
connect sellers and Euyers
² can Ee exploited Ey
convicted felons, doPestic
aEusers and others who
cannot pass a EacNground
checN, critics say
Private
sales
have
increasingly gone online
over the last decade, Eut
precise data is hard to pin
down
Gun%roNercoP,
which calls itself the world’s
largest online auction site
for ¿rearPs and accessories,
says it has grown every year
since 1 It now Eoasts
750,000 active listings on
any given day $rPslist
claiPs 7 Pillion site visits
per Ponth
One in 20 guns advertised
through $rPslist last year
was linNed to an unlicensed
seller who had listed at
least 25 guns, according to
recent research puElished Ey
Everytown for Gun Safety,
a gun control group EacNed
Ey forPer 1ew YorN 0ayor
0ichael %looPEerg $
201 investigation Ey that
group’s predecessor, 0ayors
$gainst Illegal Guns, found
that Pore than percent of
potential Euyers on $rPslist
had criPinal records that
would Ear theP froP owning
¿rearPs
$rPslist, which was
founded after Craigslist
Eanned gun ads in 2007, says
in a disclaiPer on its weEsite
that it doesn’t get involved in
transactions and that Euyers
and sellers Pust follow all
state and federal gun laws
Still, guns sold through ads
on the site have Eeen linNed
to soPe fatal shootings
$ lawsuit ¿led in OctoEer
alleges that an aEusive
husEand
purchased
a
handgun through an $rPslist
ad and used it to Nill his wife
and two other woPen at a
salon in suEurEan 0ilwauNee
in 2012 The Pan, Radcliffe
Haughton, was aEle to Euy
the gun even though a judge
had issued a restraining order
days earlier that should have
Pade hiP ineligiEle He
went online to say he was
“looNing to Euy $S$P,” and
Pade the purchase in the
parNing lot of a 0cDonald’s,
the lawsuit says
$rPslist owner Jonathan
GiEEon called OEaPa’s
Poves “well-Peaning Eut
ultiPately ineffective” He
said Pany private sellers
want to conduct EacNground
checNs Eut are discouraged
Ey a “costly and Eurden-
soPe” systeP that reTuires
theP to go to licensed dealers
and pay fees
“Further scrutiny of
law-aEiding people will not
stop criPinals,” he said
Everytown president John
FeinElatt called the clari¿ca-
tion a welcoPe if Podest
step
“It puts theP on notice
and, if accoPpanied with
aggressive enforcePent, has
the potential to narrow the
nuPEer of unlicensed dealers
who are selling without
EacNground checNs,” he
said “%ut even so, Pillions
of guns will Ee sold online
without EacNground checNs
unless Congress or states
pass universal EacNground
checNs, as 1 states have
done on their own”
The OEaPa adPinistra-
tion appeared deterPined
to taPp down expectations,
with OEaPa saying he real-
izes his actions won’t stop all
gun violence
“OEviously the president
is not aEle to taNe strong
Peasures Eecause that’s
going to reTuire Congress
to act,” said Philip CooN, a
DuNe University professor
“%ut if he is aEle to disrupt a
relative handful of sales and
save a handful of lives, that
Pay well Ee worthwhile”
He added: “What we’re
looNing at here is a low-cost
intervention with the possi-
Eility of soPe payoff”
TRANSPORTATION: State has $1670 in availaEle Eonding capacity
Continued from 1A
that’s shifted since the (2015
legislative session”
Davis said an exaPple of
a project that Pight Tualify
for a federal freight grant
is the Oregon DepartPent
of Transportation plan to
widen Interstate Highway
5 to three lanes through
Portland’s Rose Quarter and
iPprove highway raPps
He is waiting for ODOT
to produce a list of eligiEle
projects Davis expects to
unveil the Eill Ey early to
Pid-January so that people
can critiTue it and offer
suggestions for iPprove-
Pent
$ny
transportation
funding Eill faces long odds
in the short 2016 legislation
session, which starts in
FeEruary Gov .ate %rown,
Senate President Peter
Courtney, D-SaleP, and
House SpeaNer Tina .oteN,
D-Portland, have all said
it is unliNely they will pass
a transportation Eill this
year Davis could also run
into opposition Eecause his
proposal would eliPinate
part of the state’s low-carEon
fuel prograP, although he
is discussing the plan with
environPental groups
Davis was a PePEer of
the Ei-partisan group of state
lawPaNers that Gov .ate
%rown duEEed the “gang
of eight,” who Pet secretly
toward the end of the 2015
legislative session to nego-
tiate a transportation funding
pacNage The legislation lost
support after the Oregon
DepartPent of Transporta-
tion revealed the plan would
not achieve the proPised
reductions in greenhouse
gas ePissions, which was
a sticNing point for envi-
ronPentalists Eecause the
deal would have repealed
the state’s low-carEon fuel
standard RepuElicans had
refused to support any
increase in the state gas tax,
a crucial funding source for
transportation, while the fuel
standard rePained in place
Davis’ proposal would
Podify the low-carEon
fuel standard, so that fuel
producers and iPporters
would only Ee reTuired to
reduce greenhouse gases Ey
Elending Eiofuels with lower
carEon content into gasoline
and diesel Fuel coPpanies
would no longer have to
purchase carEon credits
generated Ey electric vehicle
charging stations and other
Eusinesses in order to Peet
the fuel standard The cost
of the carEon credits fueled
Puch of the opposition to
the standard, Davis said
The Oregon Environ-
Pental CoPPission voted
in DecePEer to delay
enforcePent of the fuel
standard until 201, and
coPPissioners said they
wanted freTuent updates
on the supply and cost of
alternative fuels and carEon
credits
Oregon’s
low-carEon
fuel standard is supposed to
reduce ePissions froP trans-
portation fuels Ey 10 percent
over a decade So far, carEon
credits sales under a siPilar
prograP in California have
increased the cost of gas
Ey approxiPately 1 cent
per gallon, Oregon Depart-
STUDENT
OF THE
WEEK
Ian Meakins
I RRIGON H IGH S CHOOL
Ian Meakins is a senior at Irrigon Jr/Sr High School who
will graduate in June. He currently has a 3.81 GPA
and is enrolled in Jazz Band, Honors English, Pre-
Calculus, Government/Economics, Computer Science,
and Careers. Ian is a member of pep band and also
involved in 4-H. He will graduate with close to 30
college credits that he earned by taking advanced and
honors courses in math, language arts, and computer
science. Ian has taken karate lessons for 8 years and
currently holds a black-belt. He plans to enlist in the
Air Force after graduation and hopes to receive
training in avionics or cyber security. Ian lives at home
with his mother, father, and younger brother.
Proudly Sponsored by
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Pent of EnvironPental
Quality $ir Quality Planner
Cory-$nn Wind told the
coPPission in DecePEer
$t this point, California has
reduced carEon ePissions
froP fuels Ey 1 percent
Oregon has $167 Pillion
in availaEle Eonding capacity
froP the general fund during
the current two-year Eudget
cycle, Davis said That
Eonding capacity rePained
unallocated at the end of
the 2015 legislative session,
when lawPaNers decided
against using it to overhaul
the Capitol
The Capitol project,
which would upgrade the
1 Euilding to withstand
earthTuaNes, is a top priority
for Courtney However,
Courtney’s plan ran into
opposition froP Eoth parties
after the WillaPette WeeN
newspaper reported that
Courtney had not inforPed
other lawPaNers that the
price tag increased to $337
Pillion and the project
included extras such as an
expanded cafe and gathering
place for loEEyists, along
with a 3,000-sTuare-foot
“legislative lounge”
Courtney was unavail-
aEle to coPPent 0onday on
Davis’ proposed use of the
Eonding capacity
“We’ve got the capacity
right now, at very, very low
interest rates that will only
go up,” Davis said
Finally, Davis said he
wants to increase oversight
of ODOT’s spending His
legislation will create a
special legislative coPPittee
to review the agency’s
spending and call for “soPe
pretty roEust audits”
²²²
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group. Hillary
Borrud can be reached at
503-364-4431 or hborrud@
eomediagroup.com.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
PENDLETON: 1eil %rown
elected city council president
Continued from 1A
Peet theP, of¿cials can
either provide an explana-
tion for the shortfall and a
recovery plan or reTuest the
EenchParNs Ee revised to a
lower expectation
With operations previ-
ously hindered Ey the
F$$’s slowness in creating
and adPinistering rules for
the drone industry, Coun-
cilor ToP Young expressed
concern over how the range
would Peet the Eench-
ParNs
“We haven’t Eeen hitting
proPises that we’ve had for
the past 1 Ponths, so what
has changed that now all of
a sudden we can hit these
Petrics"” he said
Steve ChrisPan, airport
Panager and econoPic
developPent director, said
the F$$ is starting to grant
the test ranges Pore author-
ities in testing drones and
the path toward testing has
“rounded a corner”
“If we can’t put people in
the air, it’s all for naught,”
he said
One way the range could
Peet SO$R Oregon’s
EenchParNs is through a
signed agreePent with the
Paci¿c 1orthwest 1ational
/aEoratory to do U$S
training at the Eastern
Oregon Regional $irport
ChrisPan said the US
DepartPent of Energy has
granted funding for the
training, with actual opera-
tions expected to start over
the next couple of Ponths
as the laEoratory waits for
various authorizations froP
the F$$
ChrisPan
said
he
prefers the range Panager
position
Ee
privately
contracted rather than a
city-hired ePployee given
the length of the grant
“$ handful of folNs” have
already approached the city
interested in the position,
ChrisPan said
The council also unan-
iPously elected Councilor
1eil %rown as council
president, a role he served
last year $s the council
president, %rown will
conduct city council Peet-
ings if 0ayor Phillip HouN
is aEsent
²²²
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
BRIEFLY
State now taking
applications for
recreational pot
licenses
PORT/$1D ($P ²
Oregon residents looNing
to enter the recreational
Parijuana Eusiness can
now apply for a license
The license paperworN
EecaPe availaEle 0onday
Porning at 6 aP $t noon,
70 people had suEPitted
the forPs, The Oregonian
reports Of those, 36
applications are froP
producers, 1 for retail
locations and eight for
processors and eight for
wholesalers
Oregon has no liPit
to the nuPEer of grower
or retailer licenses it will
issue $ report Ey the
liTuor control coPPission
estiPates the state will
issue 50 recreational
Parijuana licenses Ey the
end of 2017
$Py 0argolis, a
lawyer with EPerge /aw
Group, which represents
cannaEis Eusinesses, said
she expects her ¿rP to ¿le
aEout 30 applications this
weeN
The forPs reTuire
everything froP security
plans to electrical and
water use inforPation
CoPPission Executive
Director Steve 0arNs said
regulators are not liNely to
approve any applications
until after the Oregon
/egislature Peets next
Ponth
Oregon is top
relocation state
in America
S$/E0 ($P ² For
the third year in a row,
Pore people are Poving
to Oregon than anywhere
else in the nation
The Statesman Journal
reports that a study Ey
United 9an /ines found
that 6 percent of Poves
to and froP Oregon in
2015 were inEound
The state has increased
inEound Pigration Ey 10
percent over the past six
years
$ccording to the study,
19 percent of people
Poving to Oregon say
they did so for retirePent
$nother 19 percent
say they caPe for the
lifestyle
Other popular states
for those looNing to Pove
were South Carolina,
9erPont, Idaho, 1orth
Carolina, Florida, 1evada,
Texas, Washington and
Washington, DC
