GUN DEBATE
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Brown cites Florida shooting in local gun control
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
AP Photo/Don Ryan, file
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks in Portland on Feb. 2.
SALEM — Oregon’s
governor, backing gun-con-
trol legislation on Tuesday
before a panel of state sena-
tors, said anguished voices
in the wake of the school
shooting in Florida must be
heard.
Gov.
Kate
Brown
appeared before the Senate
Judiciary Committee to
support a bill that would
expand a ban on the
purchase or possession of
firearms or ammunition by
people convicted of stalking
and domestic violence or
with restraining orders.
Opponents say it would
violate Second Amendment
protections on the right to
bear arms.
“Gun violence must
end,” said Brown, a Demo-
crat. “We hear the anguished
voices of families fresh with
grief from this latest school
shooting, joining with fami-
lies from across the nation
and here in Oregon who’ve
lost loved ones from gun
violence. They call on us to
take action.”
A group of students
who survived the Feb. 14
shooting at a high school
in Parkland, Florida, that
claimed 17 lives traveled
on Tuesday to Florida’s
state capital to pressure
lawmakers to pass gun
control laws. Brown said
that call should resonate
across the nation, including
Oregon.
“We are hearing a call for
action from the very high
school students who ran
for their lives a week ago,”
Brown said.
The Oregon bill was
approved by the state
House 37-23 on Feb. 15.
Rep. Knute Buehler, who is
running for governor in the
2018 elections, was among
two
Republicans
who
supported the bill.
“I think survivors of
domestic violence shouldn’t
have to live in fear that
their abusers can obtain a
firearm,” Buehler said.
The bill adds to the
list of those who could be
barred from ownership
after a conviction, add to
the list of those who could
be barred after a receiving a
restraining order, and adds
stalking as a qualifying
crime. Supporters said the
bill would close a loophole
in a 2015 law that allows
some abusers, such as
boyfriends who abuse part-
ners they don’t live with, to
be excluded.
The proposal is now
being considered by the
Oregon Senate.
Survivors, lawmakers on collision course
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON,
JOSH REPLOGLE
and TAMARA LUSH
Associated Press
PARKLAND, Fla. —
Students who survived the
Florida school shooting
began a journey Tuesday
to the state Capitol to urge
lawmakers to prevent another
massacre, but within hours
the gun-friendly Legislature
had effectively halted any
possibility of banning assault
rifles like the one used in the
attack.
The legislative action
further energized the teens
as they prepared to confront
legislators who have quashed
gun-control
efforts
for
decades in a state where
1.3 million people have
concealed carry permits.
“They’re
voting
to
have shootings continually
happen. These people who
voted down the bill haven’t
experienced what we did. I
“No one in the
world with the
slightest little
bit of a soul
isn’t moved by
this tragedy.”
— Rick Wilson,
Republican strategist
want to say to them, ‘It could
be you,’” 16-year-old Noah
Kaufman said as he made the
400-mile trip to Tallahassee.
Three buses carried 100
students who, in the after-
math of the attack that killed
17 people, want to revive the
gun-control movement. The
teens carried sleeping bags
and pillows and hugged their
parents as they departed,
many wearing burgundy
T-shirts in their school colors.
They spent the seven-hour
ride checking their phones,
watching videos and reading
comments on social media
about the shooting, some of
which accused them of being
liberal pawns.
Meanwhile
at
the
Statehouse, a Democratic
representative asked for a
procedural move that would
have allowed the Repub-
lican-controlled House to
consider a ban on large-ca-
pacity magazines and assault
rifles such as the AR-15 that
was wielded by the suspect,
Nickolas Cruz.
The bill had been assigned
to three committees but was
not scheduled for a hearing.
The House quickly nixed
the Democratic motion. The
vote broke down along party
lines, and Republicans criti-
cized Democrats for forcing
the vote.
Because the committees
will not meet again before
the legislative session ends
March 9, the move essen-
tially extinguishes hope that
lawmakers would vote on
any sweeping measures to
restrict assault rifles, although
other proposals could still be
considered.
“No one in the world
with the slightest little hint
of a soul isn’t moved by
this tragedy,” Republican
strategist Rick Wilson said.
“The discussion has to be a
longer, bigger and broader
discussion.”
Lizzie Eaton, a junior at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
High School, spent the day
lobbying senators of both
parties and concluded that
lawmakers were “just not
listening to us.”
The vote was “heart-
breaking,” she said. “But
we’re not going to stop.”
The students planned to
hold a rally Wednesday to
put more pressure on the
Legislature.
“I really think they are
going to hear us out,” said
Chris Grady, a high school
senior who was on the bus.
The Feb. 14 attack
initially appeared to over-
come the resistance of some
in the state’s political lead-
ership, which has rebuffed
gun
restrictions
since
Republicans took control of
both the governor’s office
and the Legislature in 1999.
However, many members
of the party still have strong
resistance to any gun-control
measures.
Republican leaders in
the House and Senate say
they will consider raising
age restrictions for gun
purchases and temporarily
revoking someone’s guns if
that person is deemed a threat
to others. Gov. Rick Scott,
also a Republican, convened
groups assigned to propose
Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School get ready Tuesday to board a bus for a trip to Tallahassee,
Fla., to talk with lawmakers about the recent rampage at their school, in Parkland, Fla.
Trump urges ban on gun
devices like bump stocks
AP Photo/Mark Wallheiser
Sheryl Acquarola, a 16-year-old junior from Marjo-
ry Stoneman Douglas High School is overcome with
emotion in the east gallery of the House of Represen-
tatives on Tuesday after the representatives voted not
to hear the bill banning assault rifles and large capaci-
ty magazines at the Florida Capital in Tallahassee, Fla.
measures for protecting
schools from gun violence.
Lawmakers will probably
say that getting a new bill
passed is nearly impossible
with only two and a half
weeks left in the legislative
session. Some lawmakers
who are thinking of running
on a statewide ticket are
mindful of their sensitive
positions, since gun owners
make up huge voting blocs
in some parts of the state,
especially the Panhandle.
Wilson said he knows the
students “want something to
happen,” and they need “a
moment to come and make
their case.”
But, he said, “the thought
that you get to wave a wand
and change the law is some-
thing that is probably going
to collide with reality.”
The Parkland students
also plan to meet Wednesday
with top legislative leaders,
including Corcoran and
Senate President Joe Negron.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump
said Tuesday that he has signed a memo directing the
Justice Department to propose regulations to “ban all
devices” like the rapid-fire bump stocks involved in last
year’s Las Vegas massacre.
Seeking to show action days after a deadly school
shooting in Parkland, Florida, Trump spoke during a
White House ceremony recognizing bravery by the
nation’s public safety officers.
“We must move past clichés and tired debates and
focus on evidence based solutions and security measures
that actually work,” Trump said.
The announcement came days after the shooting deaths of
17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The
device Trump referred to was used in the October shooting
deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas, and attached to a half-
dozen of the long guns found in the shooter’s hotel room. A
legislative effort to ban the device fizzled out last year.
White House officials say the president will be meeting
with students, teachers and state and local officials to
discuss ways of providing more school safety and address
gun violence. Pressure has been mounting for action after
the Parkland shooting.
Trump has also indicated he is open to a limited
strengthening of federal background checks on gun
purchases. Over the weekend, the White House said he
had spoken Friday to Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Repub-
lican, about a bipartisan bill designed to strengthen the
FBI database of prohibited gun buyers.
Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders
qualified the support, stressing that talks continue and
“revisions are being considered,” but said “the president
is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background
check system.”
School shooting videos could scar kids — or galvanize them
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP)
— When two teenagers
slaughtered 12 students and
a teacher at Columbine High
School in Colorado 19 years
ago, young people across
the country learned the
news the old-fashioned way:
largely on television and in
newspapers. It took days,
if not weeks, to process the
information and discover the
full, horrific story.
When a gunman killed
17 people at a Florida high
school last week, youngsters
around the globe watched
the terrifying images and
accounts unfold almost in
real time. By the end of the
day on Feb. 14, children with
social media knew the name
of the suspect, learned which
classrooms the students were
in and, in some cases, saw
videos of the dead.
“My school is being shot
up and I am locked inside.
I’m f------ scared right now,”
wrote one teen on Twitter.
The tragedy at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High
appears to be the first major
AP Photo/Brynn Anderson
Alana Koer, 41, of Parkland, Fla., shows text messages
she received from her son the day of the shooting at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
school shooting of the social
media age in which students
shared the shocking images
in near-real time with young
people elsewhere.
Experts say the images
have the potential to scar
kids watching from afar,
potentially
triggering
post-traumatic stress and
perhaps numbing them to the
violence and causing them
to fall into apathy. But the
scenes might also galvanize
a generation and lead young
people to press for change on
the political level.
Amy Kohli, a junior at
South Broward High School
who watched the videos
posted from inside Stoneman
Douglas, said she believes
they helped bring urgency
and perspective.
“It becomes so personal
because you think ‘It could’ve
been me,’” the 16-year-old
said, standing amid other gun
safety demonstrators in front
of the federal courthouse in
Fort Lauderdale.
She added: “It can allow
people to see. If they see the
blood, they see the real story.
What actually happened in
reality. Maybe, maybe it’ll
help.”
Already, young people
are demanding action. On
Tuesday, 100 Stoneman
Douglas students headed
for Florida’s capital to urge
lawmakers to prevent a
repeat of the massacre. Also
Tuesday, dozens of students
at a high school in Boca
Raton walked out of class.
On Monday, teens protested
at the White House and in
Los Angeles, and a student
march on Washington to
press for tighter gun control
is planned for next month.
Seventeen-year-old
Nicole Burmeister, who
attends a high school a
20-minute
drive
from
Stoneman Douglas, said
students in a group chat she is
on started posting the videos
as the news was unfolding.
She struggled with whether
watching the footage was the
right thing to do.
“They
showed
the
gunshots one right after
the other, and then the kids
screaming and everything.
That one I could sort of
watch, but then the next one
they showed a body, some-
one’s body on the ground in
a puddle of blood,” she said.
“It felt wrong to watch that.”
Still, she said: “I under-
stand people kind of have to
take videos like this to shock
people. Like really show
them how gruesome and how
disgusting — the evil that
went on this way.”
Carina Viera, a senior at
Stoneman Douglas, wasn’t
in one of the attacked class-
rooms but saw a graphic video
posted by another student.
She and her friends scruti-
nized it, wondering if one of
the victims was a friend. The
person wasn’t. She wondered
whether seeing the horror on
a phone screen was a good
thing overall.
“There’s also the danger
of letting people get too used
to it,” she said. “People also
sharing on Snapchat with
those captions like with
emojis. It makes it seem
like, not a joke, but makes it
seem a lot less serious than it
actually is.”
Elisabeth Middleton, an
adolescent psychologist in
Austin, Texas, who is on the
board of the Texas Psycho-
logical Association, said
there are obvious psycholog-
ical downsides to exposing
youngsters to this.
“It is too much too soon
for these kinds of kids.
At this age, they’re not
prepared to deal with these
kinds of events,” she said.
“On the other hand, it gives
them something to bond
around. It’s great that they’re
speaking out and trying to
hold the political candidates
accountable.”