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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
The gun debate
minus rhetoric
Guns are part of life in Eastern
Oregon, and that won’t be changing
anytime soon.
But President Barack Obama
will try to change some narrow and
considered regulations about guns in
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This executive action will certainly
set off the paranoid, as well as the
haters of the president, of which
there are many. But perhaps we
should take a deep breath before
expelling vitriol, pointing our
muzzles defensively at the door
and denouncing the tyranny of our
federal government.
Is it possible there is a way to
respect our country’s long and
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make this a safer place to live?
We would argue: Yes.
The stark reality of America’s tide
of gun violence is easily understood
from the vantage point of our
northern neighbor, Canada, or our
industrialized ally, Japan. To people
living in those countries, America
appears barbaric in its willingness
to tolerate massacre after massacre,
knowing that children are prey in
many of them.
The president stated his case in a
column published recently by The
New York Times.
“Gun deaths and injuries
constitute one of the greatest
threats to public health and to the
safety of the American people,”
wrote Obama. “Every year, more
than 30,000 Americans have their
lives cut short by guns. Suicides.
Domestic violence. Gang shootouts.
Accidents. Hundreds of thousands
of Americans have lost brothers and
sisters, or buried their own children.
We’re the only advanced nation
on earth that sees this kind of mass
violence with this frequency.”
For decades, we could have no
national conversation about guns.
Our government was forbidden
from studying their effects and
the frequency at which they were
involved in American deaths.
Any politician who dared to say
anything about guns — especially
moderate Republicans — were
overthrown by a well-funded and
cutthroat gun lobby.
Yet during that time, the Pew
Research Center has been polling
Americans, asking if they are in
favor of protecting gun rights or
controlling gun ownership. The
result has been reliably against
gun control (not only because
“protecting” and “rights” are words
with positive connotations).
Just in the last year, however,
the tables have turned. Roughly 50
percent of responders said it is more
important to control gun ownership,
compared to 47 percent who said it
is more important to protect the right
of Americans who own guns.
But drill down farther, and a
large majority of Americans agree
on some narrow, responsible gun
legislation.
Should there be universal
background checks before buying a
gun?
Nearly 86 percent of Americans
said yes.
Should you be banned from
buying a gun if you’re on the
terrorist watch list?
More than 90 percent of
Americans say yes.
Should people with a history of
mental health problems, or domestic
abuse be banned from owning a
gun?
More than half of Americans say
yes.
Should there be a waiting list to
buy a gun?
Nearly 80 percent of Americans
say yes.
Should the U.S. reinstate and
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Roughly 60 percent said yes in
2013.
(These poll results are all
according to Gallup.)
The key is to try think anew
about this vexing problem. Guns
are an inexorable part of American
culture, and our ability to keep them
is written into our Constitution. That
can’t be messed with. Gun owners
of Eastern Oregon will be able to
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to hunt, to target shoot, to protect
against crime. They can continue to
showcase their family heirlooms.
But there are ways to be smarter
and safer, and we’d be crazy not
to at least start to study those
possibilities, especially with the
advent of new technologies that
our founding fathers could never
imagine. That starts with overturning
the Dickey Amendment, which even
Rep. Jay Dickey agrees should be
nixed. That would restore funding
for the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, who could then
again study guns and their effects,
and make recommendations for
making them safer. That is what
this country does with automobiles
and children’s toys and out nation’s
food supply, so why should guns be
different?
It won’t solve the problem.
Terrorists will still terrorize,
murderers will still murder,
accidents will still happen. But it
will likely save lives, perhaps some
in Eastern Oregon. That makes
executive action worth considering.
OTHER VIEWS
In Iowa, is Trump
stronger than people think?
D
to the ethanol mandate might do him
ES MOINES — Who’s leading
more damage here than some Beltway
the Republican presidential race
Republicans believe.)
here in Iowa? Most recent polls
In any event, even if Trump and
say Ted Cruz, including last month’s
Cruz do well, there will be room for
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someone else, too. In 2012, in addition
Register poll, which had Cruz ahead
to Santorum’s 29,839, Mitt Romney
of second-place Donald Trump by 10
received 29,805 votes and Ron Paul
points.
won 26,036. Marco Rubio, Chris
Yet there is a nagging sense — at
Byron
Christie — someone can do pretty well
least nagging to rival campaigns — that
York
here without winning.
Trump may be closer to Cruz than the
Comment
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Register suggested, and that the race
the state, there’s another feeling among
in Iowa could be virtually even at this
politicos here: that Iowa, critically important
point.
to the nominating process, has gotten the short
“I look at Trump, and his ceiling is so
end of the stick from the Republican Party.
much higher than everyone else’s,” says Craig
What sense does it make to have the Iowa
Robinson, a former political director of the
caucuses lead off Republican
Iowa GOP who now runs the
presidential voting on
Iowa Republican blog. “His
Monday, Feb. 1, and not
campaign has gone out and had
have a Republican debate
people self-identify that they’re
here — not even one — until
interested in him, and they’ve
Jan. 28, the Thursday before
captured that data.”
the caucuses?
Robinson’s assessment
It doesn’t make much
runs counter to one of the
sense at all, but that is what
dearest-held assumptions of
the Republican National
the political punditocracy.
Committee has wrought.
Many commentators believe
There have been GOP debates
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in Ohio, California, Colorado,
a low ceiling — that is, his
Wisconsin and Nevada, and
supporters really, really support
there will be another next
him and are unlikely to go
week in South Carolina, while
anywhere else, but he doesn’t
Iowa, for all its importance,
have much room to grow,
will be left out until about 90
because he already has the
hours before the voting begins.
loyalty of Republicans who are
The result is that an Iowa
inclined to like him.
perspective on issues and
To Robinson, that’s not the
events has been shut out of the
way it looks in Iowa. Start with
debates, and it’s too late to change that now.
the numbers.
In 2000, George W. Bush won the caucuses And of course, there haven’t been that many
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with 35,231 votes. In 2008, Mike Huckabee
won with 40,954. In 2012, Rick Santorum won of seven before the caucuses. In 2012, there
were 13 debates — three in Iowa — before
with 29,839.
Iowans voted.
“Ted Cruz is swimming in a pond where
More debates in Iowa this time around
the capacity is about 30,000 votes,” says
would have meant the voters knew more
Robinson. “I look at Trump and think that
before voting; candidates’ strengths
Trump is at that 30,000 mark now, and has the
and weaknesses would have been more
ability to blow past it — if they do a good job
systematically exposed. But that’s not what the
of turning their people out.”
RNC wanted.
Trump has assembled an Iowa team that
With the caucuses less than three and a half
puts a lot of stock in gathering the basic data
weeks away, even candidates who haven’t
needed to turn potential voters into actual
made a big play for Iowa, like Chris Christie,
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are stepping up their involvement here. But
across Iowa, has run a smart campaign, too.
³+HLVWKHQDWXUDO¿W´VD\V5RELQVRQRI&UX] at this point, Iowa still looks like a two-man
Cruz-Trump race. And Trump’s position could
“appealing to the activists who are going to
be stronger than some observers believe.
turn out anyway.” Of course, that might be the
Ŷ
key to victory if it turns out Trump can’t blow
Byron York is chief political correspondent
by, or even hit, the 30,000 mark. (On the other
for The Washington Examiner.
hand, Robinson believes Cruz’s opposition
What sense
does it make to
have the Iowa
caucuses lead
off Republican
presidential
voting, and
not have a
Republican
debate there
until Jan. 28?
YOUR VIEWS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Making some sense of a standoff
Baker City Herald
T
he illegal occupation of the
Malheur National Wildlife Refuge,
which has put Harney County in
the harsh spotlight of the international
media, a position the county’s residents
neither wanted nor deserve, could end
not just peacefully, but positively.
But this ideal outcome requires
compromise.
We’d like President Obama to
announce publicly that he will consider
granting clemency to Dwight Hammond
and his son, Steven.
Attorneys for the two ranchers, who
are in a California prison serving the
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for their arson convictions, said they
will ask the president to do so. It’s a
reasonable thing for Mr. Obama to do.
The Hammonds committed arson,
and they deserved to be punished.
Before they were resentenced in
October, Dwight had served three
months in prison, and Steven one year.
But the belief, which we share,
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the 1996 federal law under which
the Hammonds were convicted are
excessive, is hardly limited to a radical
fringe. U.S. District Judge Michael
Hogan also deemed the punishment
improper, which is why he sentenced the
pair to shorter terms in 2012.
But freeing the Hammonds is only
one part of the compromise.
We also hope Ammon Bundy and
the others who barged into the Wildlife
Refuge will leave. They say they’re
supporting the Hammonds, but their
claim lost all validity the moment they
made the Wildlife Refuge inaccessible
to the public, whose tax dollars help to
operate the place.
The occupiers say they’ll leave only
when the government agrees to give the
Refuge’s 187,000 acres to the county
and, eventually, to private owners.
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request, legal or otherwise.
Moreover, this demand has nothing
to do with the Hammonds’ current
plight. The Hammonds and other nearby
ranchers have no more legitimate claim
to the Refuge than anyone else.
Much of the land was never privately
owned, and was set aside as a bird
sanctuary in 1908. The government
acquired the rest legally, by buying it
from private owners. Bundy’s bunch
obviously has other grievances against
the federal government. But depriving
Harney County of one of its major
tourist draws is a terrible way to bring
attention to those complaints.
It’s no surprise that Harney County
Sheriff David Ward, who has urged the
occupiers to go home, has drawn the
loudest and most sustained applause.
Hermiston city council should
stay out of senior center plans
It seems to me as though the good citizens
of Hermiston still have not learned their lesson
when it comes to dealing with the city.
Decisions made by the council members
and some other city employees have for many
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credentials, their own family members, or for
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We have seen this over the past several
years with the swimming pool or even the
event center — both of which you are all still
paying for, and both of which were promised
to provide much-needed revenue for the
city: the pool that can only be used for three
months of the year, or the event center (that
was “much needed”) that sits empty most
of the time. Blame it on the economy, bad
timing, or whatever.
But what about when we get a bunch of
self-righteous, self-serving individuals who
really don’t care about the senior center unless
there is something in it for them?
This grant money does not come from
the city, it is not up to the city to make the
decision. It’s up to the senior center and its
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and how they want to make their home.
The mayor and the city council should stick
to real issues, like games and gang violence,
or the homeless roaming the streets, or the
other issues like where we need to paint “big
red watermelons,” or how they’re going to
screw us out of more taxes.
Gary D. Walls
Ione
Guantanamo prison remains
a national disgrace
I don’t understand who and what this
country is afraid of. We want to have drug lord
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman brought to the
United States so he can be prosecuted here.
He is one of the most dangerous individuals
walking the face of the Earth.
At the same time, we are totally unable
to deal with the prisoners who have been
languishing at Guantanamo Bay, some for
over 14 years. If these people are dangerous,
prosecute and sentence them. If they aren’t
dangerous (Why are we spending money to
lock them up?), then let them go.
The prison we are running in Cuba is a
national embarrassment and needs to be closed.
Patrick J. Delaney
Hermiston
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper
reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
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letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
Be heard! Comment online at eastoregonian.com.