Polk County News
Polk County Itemizer-Observer • July 19, 2017 3A
Oregon passes ‘extreme risk’ law
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
SALEM — With the pas-
sage of Senate Bill 719, Ore-
gon joins a handful of states
to authorize “extreme risk
protection orders,” com-
pelling the temporary sur-
render of deadly weapons,
including firearms.
The Oregon House of
Representatives approved
the bill on a 31-28 vote on
July 6 to send it to Gov. Kate
Brown for her signature.
The Oregon Senate passed
the bill 17-11 on May 1.
Both votes were mostly
on party lines, with bill
sponsor Sen. Brian Boquist
(R-Dallas) the only Republi-
can to vote for it.
Proponents of the bill said
it will prevent suicides and
domestic violence by taking
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CORRECTIONS
Vikkye Fetters name was
misspelled in the story, “WOU
grad ready to improve value
of the chamber,” printed on
May 31. The I-O regrets the
error.
The date for the Mon-
mouth High School reunion
was incorrect in the July 12
edition of the Itemizer. The re-
union was on Sunday, not Sat-
urday. The I-O regrets the
error.
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WEATHER
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July 11............... 82
July 12............... 86
July 13............... 78
July 14............... 88
July 15............... 83
July 16............... 77
July 17............... 83
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Rainfall during July — 0.00 in.
Rain through July 17 — 33.30 in.
weapons out of the hands of
people in danger of harming
themselves or others. Oppo-
nents claim, no matter its
good intentions, the bill in-
fringes on the gun owner-
ship rights and doesn’t ad-
dress underlying mental is-
sues of the causes of vio-
lence.
Boquist denied the bill is
an attempt to take away a
person’s rights.
“We only want to target
those individuals who un-
fortunately want to commit
suicide and unfortunately
may want to harm their
spouse that’s in the house,
their children in the house
or their roommate,” Boquist
said during the Senate de-
bate of the bill. “This isn’t
some broad, sweeping con-
fiscation like you see in Bre-
itbart News. Everyone wants
to promote this as a gun bill.
It’s not.”
He said the bill is about
preventing suicide among
military veterans and the
general population, and
averting domestic violence.
Boquist said a similar law
passed in 1999 in Connecti-
cut has been used only
about 800 times. A study,
“Implementation and effec-
tiveness of Connecticut’s
risk-based gun removal law:
Does it prevent suicides?”
found it does work. Pub-
lished in August 2016, the
study looked at the impact
of the law from 1999 to 2013.
It found that approximately
10 to 20 gun seizures were
carried out for every averted
suicide.
While Oregon’s bill is not
limited to guns, according to
Oregon Health Authority
statistics on suicide, 56 per-
cent of suicides involved a
firearm. The report, from
2013 and updated last in
2015, stated the highest
rates of suicide were among
white males and veterans,
with one in five suicides oc-
curring among vets.
Opponents of the bill say
it takes away gun owner-
ship rights without helping
the subjects of the orders,
or those who petition for
them.
“There’s nothing in this
bill that addresses any kind
of help for a person who is
genuinely suicidal, which
this bill — this is how it’s
been sold to us,” said Kevin
Starrett, the director of Ore-
gon Firearms Federation
during July 3 testimony on
the bill. “We care about why
they are committing suicide,
not how they are commit-
ting suicide.”
He added those filing pe-
titions may not be mental
health professionals, nor
are the judges hearing the
cases.
“All of this without me
ever having been accused of
a crime, let alone having
been convicted of a crime,”
he said. “I know of no other
situation where this princi-
ple is in effect, where your
possessions and your priva-
cy can be taken away by the
authorities with absolutely
no indication, no proof, that
you have done anything
wrong.”
Roger Beyer, a lobbyist for
the NRA, said a few the
items judges consider when
Senate Bill 719
Senate Bill 719 creates of process for petitioning and ob-
taining an extreme risk protection order through the court sys-
tem preventing individuals from “having in the person’s cus-
tody or control, owning, purchasing, possessing or receiving,
or attempting to receive a deadly weapon” if sufficient evi-
dence is established that they present a risk to themselves or
others.
The bill states that in deciding on the petition, judges shall
consider: suicide threats or attempts or acts of violence to-
ward others; a history of use or attempted use of violence;
convictions on misdemeanors involving violence, domestic vi-
olence, driving under the influence, cruelty or abuse of ani-
mals; evidence of unlawful uses of a controlled substance; pre-
vious unlawful or reckless use of, display or brandishing of a
deadly weapon; previous violations of court orders; and evi-
dence of acquisition or attempted acquisition of a deadly
weapon in the 180 days before the petition is filed.
Deadly weapon is defined in the bill as: “Any instrument, ar-
ticle or substance specifically designed for and presently capa-
ble of causing death or serious physical injury.”
Members of an individual’s family, household or law en-
forcement officers can petition the court for the order, which if
approved, can prohibit a person from possessing deadly
weapons for up to a year. Renewals require another hearing
with the petitioner responsible for showing the risk persists.
SB 719 requires that the petitioner provide “clear and con-
vincing evidence,” a legal standard that indicates that risk is
highly probable.
Once the order is approved, the subjects have 24 hours to
surrender all deadly weapons.
They have 30 days to request a hearing to have the order
withdrawn.
Order violations, filing a false application and filing a peti-
tion to harass are all Class A misdemeanors.
deciding on protection or-
ders are not associated with
risk, including driving under
the influence convictions
and buying or attempting to
buy weapons.
“It seems pretty specific
in that it calls out specific
items that will be consid-
ered, many of which, in our
opinion, have no correlation
to being violent or self-de-
structive,” he said.
Rep. Mike McLane (R-
Powell Butte), the House Re-
publican leader, said he is
worried about how the defi-
nition of “deadly weapon”
would be interpreted and
whether police officers filing
petitions or conducting
searches from weapons
would escalate dangerous
situations.
“I’m always leery when
people are rushing to take
away rights of citizens in the
name of compassion, be-
cause that is when we need
to be most vigilant,” McLane
said.
Niki Tezieff, with Ameri-
cans for Responsible Solu-
tions, a group formed by for-
mer Congresswoman
Gabrielle Giffords and her
husband following the
Sandy Hook shooting, said
the bill could save lives.
“Judges’ discretion was
brought up, and that is
right,” she said. “There’s a
Constitutional requirement
and a Constitutional obliga-
tion for judges to choose
what’s best in these cases, in
particular when it comes to
firearm dispossession.”
She said in most mass
shootings in the last 20
years, there had been warn-
ing signs that the people
who committed those acts
were struggling. The bill
gives them a way to act on
those warnings.
Rep. Jennifer Williamson
(D-Portland), the majority
leader in the House, said
extreme risk protection or-
ders are just one part of ad-
dressing mental health. She
said the legislature allocat-
ed $20 million to provide
crisis services, suicide pre-
vention — including to vet-
erans — and access to
school-based mental health
services.
“This is the way we will
get at this issue of suicide, a
multi-dimensional ap-
proach. I believe this bill is
only one piece of it,” she
said. “I believe it is a tool
that can be used in con-
junction with other invest-
ments to address mental
health and suicide in this
state.”
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