STATE
Wallowa County Chieftain
A16
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
Survey: Majority of Oregonians support stricter gun laws
By GARRETT ANDREWS
Oregon Capital Insider
SALEM — A majority of
Oregonians support stricter
gun laws, according to a
new poll by the Oregon Val-
ues and Beliefs Center.
The nonpartisan inde-
pendent research group
on Thursday released data
reporting 59% of survey
respondents say they believe
the state’s fi rearms laws
should be stricter, which is
in line with an April 2021
Pew Research poll fi nd-
ing 60% of Americans want
stricter gun laws.
The beliefs center sur-
veyed 1,446 Oregon adults
between June 2 and 11 about
gun regulations.
Last month, an 18-year-
old man in Uvalde, Texas,
used an AR-15-style rifl e he
purchased legally to kill 19
children and two adults and
injure 17 others in an attack
on an elementary school.
But with that tragedy so
fresh, open-ended questions
about guns were not asked
during the survey because it
was felt the answers would
be unproductive, according
to an email from Amaury
Vogel, associate executive
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin fi le photo
A casing discharges from a handgun.
director of the Oregon Val-
ues and Beliefs Center.
Among the groups most
likely to want stricter gun
laws are urbanites, women,
college graduates, people
75 or older and people with
household incomes above
$100,000 per year.
Slightly more than half
of respondents, or 54%,
believe making it harder for
people to obtain fi rearms
would result in fewer mass
shootings.
The survey found that
nearly half of gun owners,
46%, think fi rearms laws
should be stricter in the
U.S., and 43% believe there
would be fewer mass shoot-
ings if it was harder for peo-
ple to legally obtain guns.
Women are more likely
than men to want stricter
gun laws, and also less
likely to own a gun.
In Oregon, women are
also less likely than men to
own a gun, 25% compared
to 41%.
This is again in line with
the national level: a June
2021 Pew poll found that
22% of women and 39% of
men own guns.
Deschutes County resi-
dent Pat Minney was among
the survey respondents.
She told The Bulletin
there are “way too many
guns” and would like to see
a ban on military style weap-
ons and stronger background
checks. She said she’s long
held those beliefs, but she’s
watched her husband, a mil-
itary veteran, soften his pro-
gun stance in recent years in
response to mass shootings.
“Ever since the shooting
in Springfi eld and the shoot-
ings out East, we’ve just
watched it get worse and
worse,” Minney said, refer-
ring to the 1998 Thurston
High School shooting.
The survey found 90% of
respondents who identify as
Democrats believe gun laws
should be stricter, while
only 24% of those who
identify as Republicans feel
the same. The results sug-
gest Oregon is slightly more
polarized on this issue than
the national average. The
April, 2021, Pew poll found
that 81% of Democrats and
20% of Republicans favored
more strict federal gun laws.
Also
surveyed
was
Washington County res-
ident and retired Intel
employee Jim Ourada, who
opposes stricter gun laws
and believes every house-
hold should be armed.
“I live in unincorpo-
rated Washington County,”
he told The Bulletin. “It’s
pretty safe out here, but
if you walk 6 miles to the
east, it’s practically a war
zone. There’s lots of shoot-
ings, every single day, every
single night. But you know
what, no one ever goes after
them. What am I supposed
to do, sit here and take the
bullet for them?”
Ourada asked, why
strengthen
background
checks when they’re “pretty
strong already.”
“The criminals, they don’t
use background checks, do
they?” Ourada said. “The
gang-bangers in downtown
Portland, they aren’t doing
background checks, because
most of them can’t own a
weapon anyway.”
Trap check regulation worries livestock industry
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
er, a 15
Hanley “Noodle” Mill hool, won the tie-down calf
Sc
at Joseph Charter e Oregon State High School
roping title at th eville earlier this month.
Rodeo Finals in Prin n 16 of 17 calves through
Miller tied dow
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the season and plac 16 runs.
of
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Pro onsore d b y
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OF
THE
E” MILLER
HANLEY “NOOD -y L ear-old freshman
Traps for predators
must be checked more fre-
quently under new Oregon
wildlife regulations that
the farm industry fears will
undermine protections for
livestock.
Signifi cantly for cat-
tle and sheep producers,
restraining traps must be
checked more than twice
as often if they’re meant to
stop predators from damag-
ing livestock operations.
Due to the long distances
between many traps, agri-
culture groups worry the
Introducing Englander!
Mattress Sale July 6th
USDA/Contributed Photo
A coyote attacks a lamb. Traps intended to stop predators from
harming livestock must be checked more frequently under
new Oregon regulations that worry livestock producers.
revised rules will hinder
eff orts to control coyotes
and other predators.
“We have a multitude of
predatory animals and their
populations are growing,”
said Todd Nash, president
of the Oregon Cattemen’s
Association. “The thing that
seems to reduce over time is
the number of capable trap-
pers. They’re spread so thin
to begin with that they’re
covering huge swaths of
land.”
For traps that kill pred-
ators, the state’s Fish and
Wildlife Commission has
reduced the time between
trap checks from 30 days to
14 days, which the OCA did
not oppose.
However, traps and
snares that restrain live-
stock-damaging predators
must now be checked every
two days under the new reg-
ulations, compared to every
seven days previously.
With the limited num-
ber of available trappers,
the rule change eff ectively
reduces the amount of work
they’ll be able to perform —
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especially when fuel prices
are so high, critics say.
“That’s a game changer.
You change the way you
operate,” Nash said.
If they’re not intended
to prevent livestock dam-
age, restraining traps for
predators must now also be
checked every two days,
down from three days
previously.
Traps intended to curb
livestock damage are meant
to catch specifi c predators,
they were previously given
more time to work than
those not aimed at particular
individuals.
By “bending to urban
pressure” and reducing trap
check intervals, the com-
mission has shown it’s “out
of touch with rural commu-
nities and land managers,”
said Lauren Smith, the Ore-
gon Farm Bureau’s govern-
ment and national aff airs
director.
“Across Oregon’s vast
landscape, there are terrain
and weather issues, lack of
road access, trap effi ciency
and many other issues that
come into play when mak-
ing such a signifi cant reduc-
tion in a trap check time
intervals,” Smith said in an
email.
The rule change fails to
account for these practical
challenges or the livestock
losses and other costs that
predators impose on rural
landowners, she said.
Complying with the new
rules will cause expenses
to “skyrocket” for the
USDA’s Wildlife Services
division, whose agents are
often hired to trap predators,
said Jim Soares, vice presi-
dent of the Oregon Trappers
Association.
The agency would need
to spend substantially more
money just to perform the
same amount of work, but
it’s unclear where the addi-
tional funding would come
from, Soares said.
“This is going to be dev-
astating for the livestock
industry,” he said.
Environmental
advo-
cates, on the other hand,
cheered the revised trap
check requirements because
shorter
intervals
will
decrease the amount of time
that animals suff er.
More frequent checks
will also help prevent
the unintended deaths of
non-target threatened and
endangered species caught
in restraining traps, accord-
ing to the Center for Biolog-
ical Diversity nonprofi t.
The regulatory deci-
sion is a “step in the right
direction” and better rep-
resents “Oregon’s values,”
but it still falls short of the
24-hour trap check inter-
vals recommended by wild-
life experts, the group said.
“This change makes trap-
ping less inhumane, but
Oregon still has a long way
to go.”
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