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
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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
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Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters
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editor.
P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
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As with all letters and advertising content, the
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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