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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 2018)
Tuesday, June 19, 2018 OFF PAGE ONE FIRE: State moving away from talking about a “fire season,” now just a “fire year” Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A summer. Overall, Livingston said, Oregon’s fire outlook for 2018 has not changed much from last year. Joe Hessel with the Ore- gon Department of For- estry said the southwest- ern and central Oregon regions already declared their fire seasons, and the state’s northeast area usually declares its season before the Fourth of July. “What I tell people is things will be hot and dry,” he said. Katy Gray, spokesper- son for the Wallowa-Whit- man National Forest, said the U.S. Forest Service and other wildland fire agen- cies are moving away from talking about a “fire sea- son.” Instead, they are using the term “fire year” because wildfires are year-round. As the summer pro- gresses, use restrictions on national and state forests increase to cut down on the number of human-caused fires. Darcy Weseman, spokesperson on the Uma- tilla National Forest, said the Forest Service wants to highlight its “know before you go” list, which urges visitors to the forest to first check for alerts and safety rules that include road clo- sures, and make sure some- one knows where you are going and when you will return. Then stick to the plan. Ron Simpson, acting fire management officer on the Malheur National Forest, addressed the use of drones. The unmanned aircraft are a concern over wildfire areas, he said. Drone oper- ators buzzed forest fire air- space at least 36 times in 2017 throughout western and southern states and shut down at least 25 aerial fire- fighting efforts. “That puts the fire fight- ing effort on hold, that puts people lives at risk,” he said. One of the shutdowns occurred over the Rogue National Forest. But the 2017 drone incursions were an improvement from 2016, according to the National Interagency Fire Cen- ter, when there were 41 incursions. SWAP: The two sides couldn’t reach a deal The city was considering trading McKay Neighbor- hood Park to the school district for this piece of property, which was the former site of school district ad- ministrative offices, just east of the Pendleton Early Learning Center. Continued from 1A cover the cost of turning the east block into a “green space” for the surrounding community, but bond funds ran out as they went to other projects. The district considered relinquishing the east block to the city under the thought that it could be developed for housing or commercial purposes, but the east block’s $276,000 real market value was higher than McKay Park’s $209,000. Jones said the two sides couldn’t find a deal that would see each side get equal value, and the district eventually decided to hold onto its property. Jones said the east block could either be sold by the district itself to a prospective developer, or used by the district for future expansion. “It is in a prime location,” she said. For the city of Pendleton’s part, City Manager Robb Corbett said the city would remain open to working with the school district if they need to use McKay Park to help build a new school. Staff photo by Kathy Aney ——— Contact Antonio Sierra at asierra@eastorego- LAW: Most of those denied the right to own weapons were male, white, 18-50 Continued from 1A ing unfettered access to guns. On the heels of a gun sui- cide in one lawmaker’s fam- ily and amid confessions of domestic violence in anoth- er’s, the Oregon Legislature narrowly passed a law in 2017 giving judges discre- tion to pry guns from peo- ple not convicted of a crime who show signs they might shoot themselves or some- one else. Under the new law, police, family members or roommates can petition a judge for an “extreme risk protection order” barring gun possession. If an order is granted, the person named in it has 24 hours to turn over all guns to law enforcement, a qualified third party or gun dealer. The order stands for a year but can be extended indefinitely by a judge. To understand the ram- ifications of Oregon’s law since it took effect in Jan- uary, The Oregonian/Ore- gonLive reviewed hundreds of pages of court filings, listened to hours of court- room audio and conducted interviews with people who lost their gun rights or tried to get someone’s weapons taken away. That analysis revealed that, in the law’s first four months, Oregonians in 16 counties used it to try to get weapons out of the hands of nearly 30 people, most of whom were operating at a potentially deadly nexus of substance abuse, anger and gun ownership. Tracking those cases wasn’t easy. There is no clearinghouse, and records aren’t listed on public dock- ets. The Oregonian/Oregon- Live filed public records requests with state court administrators, who sought documents from their coun- terparts in all 36 counties. The news outlet reviewed case files showing 27 instances in which a per- son sought a no-guns order. They represent all or virtu- ally all cases brought from January 1 through April 30. None of those cases has been previously reported. Judges ordered guns taken away in 24 of them. Judges declined to order guns removed in three cases and reversed the initial deci- sion in three others, citing the high bar necessary to justify taking away a per- son’s guns. Under Oregon’s law, evidence the person is at risk to harm themselves or others has to be “clear and convincing,” not merely a preponderance, and must point to likely harm in the very near future. Details of the cases of people who lost their gun rights paint a disquieting portrait: A Portland man who posed for photos with a semi-automatic rifle and had spoken openly about plan- ning a school shooting. A Beaverton veteran who threatened to gun down peo- ple at his church. A Vale man who fired his .357 Magnum into the ceil- ing of his home, believing he was shooting at people in his attic who were poisoning him. A man in Pendleton stopped by his sister from returning to work to shoot the boss who’d just fired him. Most of the people denied the right to own weapons were white men in their 20s through 50s. They live in big cities, small towns and rural hamlets. Nearly all were reported to be drug users or drinkers or face mental health challenges or both. Some were suicidal, as shown in cases from Tilla- mook to Portland to Red- mond. Most, witnesses told judges, were very angry. At a time when many in the nation are searching for ways to stop would-be shooters before they can massacre innocents at a school or at a mall, the Ore- gon cases suggest pre-emp- tive gun removals may prove an effective tool. Of those who lost gun rights so far, at least four had threat- ened to shoot people in pub- lic places. But Oregon’s law has been used most often to try to pre-empt shootings that draw far fewer headlines but claim far more lives: sui- cides and domestic violence. The law allows a judge to order guns seized with- out the gun owner being so much as notified that a gun-removal petition has been filed and a court hear- ing scheduled. That’s atyp- ical for court actions, but mirrors what happens in elder abuse, stalking and domestic violence cases, in which only the accusing side is present at the initial court hearing. A review of case records shows only a single gun owner was pres- ent or had their side repre- sented when a judge first decided how much of a risk they posed. If the judge orders guns taken away, the affected per- son is told he or she can chal- lenge the decision. But so far, few affected gun owners have done that. They are not provided government-paid lawyers if they wish to. Before the law passed, lobbyists for the National Rifle Association and Ore- gon Firearms Federation questioned whether it is legal to seize guns from peo- ple without their knowledge. (The NRA reversed its posi- tion this year, and its top lob- byist, Chris Cox, declared “we need to stop danger- ous people before they act” and called for Congressional funding for state risk protec- tion orders systems.) No Oregon court has ruled on the constitutional- ity of the new gun confis- cation law, but the Oregon Court of Appeals mentioned it in footnotes to three April opinions, noting it as a pos- sible less-onerous alterna- tive to involuntary com- mitment to the state mental hospital. Pro-gun lobbyists also complained that the new law does not connect people who have their guns taken to social services that may help with underlying prob- lems. Connecticut’s law, by contrast, requires the state health agency to be noti- fied of those served with a no-guns order so they can give them mental health advice and a list of places to turn for help. DONT MISS YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO ADVERTISE IN GET A TASTE OF EASTERN OREGON! INCLUDES FREE COLOR, BOGO AD SPACE AND 3 MONTHS OF DIGITAL ADS ALL FOR ONE LOW PRICE! CONTACT YOUR SALES REP TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE! Your culinary guide to Fine Dining, Breweries, Pubs, Cafes, Distilleries, Burger Joints, Food Trucks and soooo much more! PUBLISH DATE: ABC’S OF MEDICARE June 27th, 2018 in the EO, HH, WCC & BME. DEADLINE: June 20th, 2018 Helping you through the Medicare Maze June 26th. The Saddle at 9 am St. Anthony’s Hospital at 4:30 pm Looking for a fun, no-pressure way to learn more about Medicare? Join us at an upcoming event! We’ll answer any questions you have about Medicare and explain the benefi ts of the plans. Terry Becktold • Sr Health Care Specialist 541-276-0367 • terry@pendletoninsurancecenter.com Jeanne Jewett 541-564-4531 Audra Workman 541-564-4538 jjewett@hermistonherald.com aworkman@eastoregonian.com Kimberly Macias 541-278-2683 Angela Treadwell 541-966-0827 kmacias@eastoregonian.com atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
