4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ MARCH 7, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
USPS# 497-660
Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News
Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the
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L ETTERS
Decreasing gun violence requires
increasing evidence-based debate
Although I’m not a gun
owner, I have nothing against
responsible gun ownership and
the rights protected under the
Second Amendment — which,
in conjunction with the First
Amendment’s right to free
speech, assure that all
Americans have the right to
protect themselves against
tyranny in their words as well
as their actions.
And as much as the fringe
on both sides of the gun issue
would like us to believe there
is a clear chasm separating
those for gun control and those
against it, that simply isn’t
true.
I have many friends across
the country who are proud gun
owners, NRA members and
supporters of the Second
Amendment. Though we have
certainly had “spirited” con-
versations about solutions to
the escalating gun violence in
our country, the one thing we
agree on is the need for respon-
sible gun ownership.
Control and Prevention (CDC)
and National Institutes of
Health any funding for studies
on injury or death related to
guns.
In short, the gold standards
of public health research in the
U.S. are unable to provide data
From the Editor’s Desk
N ED H ICKSON
The problem comes in
defining what being “responsi-
ble” means and what it should
require. Unfortunately, the
answers to those questions
were essentially sequestered
with the passage of the Dickey
Amendment in 1996, which
was inserted as a rider within
that session’s federal spending
bill. The provision effectively
denies the Centers for Disease
for one of our nation’s most
important discussions.
Regardless of where you
stand
on
the
Dickey
Amendment, the end result has
been a lack of any definitive
long-term, medical-based data
or studies provided by a non-
partisan agency for the last 22
years.
Recently, the organization
Everytown For Gun Safety
claimed that 18 school shoot-
ings have occurred since Jan. 1
— a fact called into question
by the Washington Post, which
revealed the group’s data
included shootings on perma-
nently closed school grounds,
a security guard’s non-injury
accidental discharge of his
weapon, etc.
To find real solutions, hav-
ing non-partisan facts and sta-
tistics as a baseline is crucial.
With the recent passage of
Oregon’s gun bill raising the
minimum age of a gun pur-
chaser to 21, many opponents
are saying there’s no evidence
to prove it will have any effect
on decreasing incidents of gun
violence.
Maybe so.
But to have a true evidence-
based debate, we have to agree
on a baseline of evidence in the
first place.
Remember the organization MADD
(Mothers Against Drunk Driving)? In
the late 1970s and early ’80s, the high-
way slaughter of innocents by drunk
drivers prompted parents and others to
organize and demand better laws, more
responsible police and judicial work,
education for drivers, legal ramifica-
tions for servers of alcoholic beverages
and public education to the effect that
drinking and driving was socially unac-
ceptable.
The concepts of designated drivers,
free taxi service to and from events and
“Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive
Drunk” became popular and embraced
socially.
As a result, highway deaths due to
drunk driving fell dramatically.
Here in Florence, the number of cars
and trucks seen abandoned along
Highway 101 on Monday mornings
nearly vanished; it used to be so com-
mon that the kids and I would wager on
the number we would spot on the drive
to school Monday mornings.
I pray that we are now experiencing a
change in our cultural tolerance of vio-
lence with weapons similar to that of
driving under the influence of alcohol.
Based on the MADD experience,
promoting more responsible gun use
will not be a one shot, one change
endeavor. It will take years.
It won’t be perfect.
It will require better laws, more dili-
gent enforcement, judges who are
onboard, families and friends to step up
and businesses to take an active and
responsible role (as many now are doing
on their own).
A cultural change this vast must be
bottom-up as well as top-down.
Friends don’t let friends even think
about destroying lives, including their
own.
—Jim and Jane Pittenger
Florence
A ERIAL PESTICIDES BAN GET -
TING CORPORATE PUSHBACK
The push-back to the Lane County
aerial spray ban in Oregon’s forests is
on.
A phone poll has been mounted ask-
ing responders, “Do you support County
Commissioners putting the spray ban
initiative on the ballot even though it
has already been proven illegal?”
The initiative has not been proven
illegal. This poll is clearly designed to
discredit the efforts of spray ban propo-
nents.
What is true is that the Freedom from
Aerial Herbicide Alliance is seeking to
make the practice of aerial spray illegal,
due to significant health issues and con-
cerns.
Another example of the push-back
came in the form of a petition circulated
at the recent Logging Conference.
It asked potential signers to approve
E DITOR
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor
as part of a community discussion of issues on the
local, state and national level.
Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or
typed letters must be signed. All letters need to
include full name, address and phone number; only
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limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to
editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication
of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on
space available and the volume of letters received.
Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters
or poetry, or letters from outside our readership
area will only be published at the discretion of the
editor.
P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
Election-related letters must address pertinent or
timely issues of interest to our readers at-large.
Letters must 1) Not be a part of letter-writing
campaigns on behalf of (or by) candidates; 2)
Ensure any information about a candidate is accu-
rate, fair and not from second-hand knowledge or
hearsay; and 3) explain the reasons to support
candidates based on personal experience and per-
spective rather than partisanship and campaign-
style rhetoric.
Candidates themselves may not use the letters to
the editor column to outline their views and plat-
forms or to ask for votes; this constitutes paid polit-
ical advertising.
As with all letters and advertising content, the
newspaper, at the sole discretion of the publisher,
general manager and editor, reserves the right to
reject any letter that doesn’t follow the above crite-
ria.
Send letters to:
nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com
LETTERS
R ESPONSIBLE GUN USE MAY
REQUIRE GETTING MADD
TO THE
P OLICY
this statement:
“I oppose the extreme measures pro-
posed for the countywide ballot that
would ban the safe and effective farm
and forest management practices in
Lane County.”
One must ask: Safe and effective for
whom?
Profit motives for industry are driving
this notion. And the Right to Farm and
Forest Act that protects this activity is
deeply flawed. It elevates the rights of
industry above those of local residents.
We all live downstream.
Many county residents don’t approve
of aerial spraying. We must decide for
ourselves — and do so at the ballot box.
—Michelle Holman
Deadwood
The First
Amendment
C
ongress shall make no law
respecting an establishment
of religion or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the
freedom of speech, or of the press,
or the right of the people peace-
ably to assemble, and to petition
the Government for a redress of
grievances.
WHERE TO WRITE
Pres. Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments:
202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line:
503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-
228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.gov
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
( 4 th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609
541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan
( Dist. 5 )
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@
oregonlegislature.gov
State Rep. Caddy
McKeown
( Dist. 9 )
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email: rep.caddymckeown
@state.or.us
West Lane County
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us