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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (March 14, 2018)
4 A ❘ WEDNESDAY EDITION ❘ MARCH 14, 2018 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. 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 National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. Publisher, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Consulting Editor 831-761-7353 Email: echalhoub@register-pajaronian.com Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Erik Chalhoub Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classifiedad,sThursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $76; 6-month in-county, $52; 10-weeks subscription, $23; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription,$99; 6-month out-of-county, $65; 10-weeks subscription, $29; Out of State — 1- year subscription, $125; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $71. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: TheSiuslawNews.com L ETTERS LETTERS O BSERVATIONS ON PROPOSED BANK LEGISLATION Much ado is being made of the roll back in some aspects of the Dodd-Frank banking reform. As I have not seen or read any specific details proposed in this legislation, it would be foolish for me to put forward an opinion on the propriety of this effort. I can, however, look at a few basic numbers and be better prepared to reach an informed position if, and when, the details are hammered out in Congress and published. As reported, the change will exempt banks with assets of between $50 bil- lion and $250 billion from the most stringent requirements of the existing law. Wow, that is a lot of money. Well, maybe not that much. One must consider the assets of JPMorgan Chase at $2.53 trillion; Bank of America at $2.28 trillion, Wells Fargo $1.93 trillion; and poor little Goldman Sachs struggles along with only $860 billion. My calculator reveals that JPMorgan is thus 10 times larger than the top end of the range to be affected by the pro- posed legislative changes. It is helpful for me to keep in mind that a trillion is a thousand billion and a million mil- lions. From this I would offer two observa- tions. First, some would have us believe that this legislation will unleash the “big banks” to again run rampant. By my definition of “big,” the numbers would indicate this not to be so. Also, consider that Oregon Pacific Bank, right here in Florence, had pub- lished assets in 2016 of $230.6 million — that’s with an M — and they are sub- ject to much of the same burdens required by Dodd-Frank as those “big” banks. —Jimmie Zinn Florence T HANKFUL FOR RESPONDERS TO L A B U L A FIRE On behalf of the Florence Elks Lodge 1858, I would like to thank Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue and all those who fought the recent fire at La Bu La Restaurant. We have a garage and the rock house very close to the burned building. Those working the fire did an amazing job protecting our buildings. We were happy to discover nothing stored in either building was damaged, let alone the building themselves being intact. Thank you to all the first responders for their hard work and dedication fight- ing that fire on a cold, wet night to save our property. —Gary Hensen, Trustee Florence Elks Lodge 1858 G UN VIOLENCE STUDY HAS NO PLACE IN CDC In response to Ned Hickson’s editori- al “Decreasing Gun Violence Requires Increasing Evidence-Based Debate” (March 7), I would say we already have it. We most certainly don’t need the medical community to diagnose some- thing that is not within its purview; I have never seen a bacteria named “gun.” I believe this is a straw dog to turn the discussion in a direction that can be manipulated to serve the object of gun control. If you look at the 2016 CDC stats for the top 10 causes of death, you won’t find even anything remotely attributa- ble to firearms until the very end. Number of deaths by leading causes of death in order: Heart disease: 633,842 Cancer: 595,930 Lower respiratory diseases: 155,041 Accidents (unintentional injuries): 146,571 Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 140,323 Alzheimer’s disease: 110,561 Diabetes: 79,535 Influenza and Pneumonia: 57,062 Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 49,959 Intentional self-harm (suicide): 44,193 I believe that the good doctors at CDC should work on the very real med- ical problems we all face. —David T. Eckhardt Florence G UN COMMENTORS SHOULD USE REAL - WORLD CONTEXT In response to Win Jolley’s Letter to the Editor “Do the Math On Gun Control” (March 10), in a real-world context the math he uses doesn’t add up. He said he can fire his nine rounds from his 9mm in 4.5 seconds. The math doesn’t add up. To make it easy, let’s say it was 10 rounds in 5 seconds. So if you take 60 seconds and divide by 5 seconds to fire 10 rounds, that equals 120 rounds per minute from that 9mm handgun. So how can an AR-15 fire 600 rounds per minute as he claims? According to the math, that leaves 480 rounds on the table. And that doesn’t even include time to aim and reload. Modern semi-automatic weapons fire a round each time the trigger is pulled. So how fast can you pull the trigger? The top three gun competitors in the world can indeed pull the trigger three times per second, for short periods of time. So the theoretical “cycling rate” might be 180 rounds per miute, but the reality is you’re only maintaining it for bursts of a second or two. Keep in mind that sort of firing rate generates tremendous amounts of heat, which is why military rifles in battle on full-auto get hot enough to warp the barrels (requiriung easily replaceable barrels). In addition, most modern semi-auto- matic weapons use 30-round maga- zines, which means the mag would have to be changed six times to reach 180 rounds per minute. An expert can change a magazine on some rifles in about two to three seconds, assuming he or she has staged the mags. Still, there is 12 to 18 seconds lost just changing magazines. So a maximun theoretical rate, for an expert competitive marksman, is about 138 rounds per minute. A long way from 600 or even 480. Even with a trigger finger at superhu- man speed on a belt-fed supply of ammo operated by a top competitor with a gun barrel that doesn’t warp, fir- ing 600, 500 or even 400 rounds per minute from an AR-15 isn’t even remotely possible. There will never be total agreement on any type of gun issue. But inaccurate statements about guns only makes it worse. I’m no expert but own nine AR- 15s and am willing to show anyone who wants to what the weapons will and won’t do at our local gun range. If you want to know real-world con- text about AR-15s, ask someone who owns one. —Jared Anderson Florence (Editor’s note: The above letter writer shares the same name as Siuslaw News community reporter Jared Anderson but is not the same person.) TO THE P OLICY 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 name and city will be printed. Letters should be 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 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
