A2 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2021
The
Bulletin
How to reach us
CIRCULATION
Didn’t receive your paper?
Start or stop subscription?
541-385-5800
PHONE HOURS
6 a.m.-noon Tuesday-Friday
7 a.m.-noon Saturday-Sunday
and holidays
GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL, STATE & NATION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
COVID-19 data for Wednesday, May 5:
Deschutes County cases: 8,370 (81 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 73 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 1,031 (16 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 20 (zero new deaths)
Jefferson County cases: 2,146 (3 new cases)
Jefferson County deaths: 33 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 188,417 (808 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,509 (1 new death)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Wednesday: 31 (6 in ICU)
129 new cases
120
7-day
average
90
new
cases
110
103 new cases
(April 23)
100
(Nov. 27)
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
50
new
cases
70
60
(Feb. 17)
50
(Nov. 14)
(July 16)
9 new cases
EMAIL
(Jan. 1)
47 new cases
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
130
(April 29)
108 new cases
Ways to help limit its spread: 1. Wash hands often with
soap and water for at least 20 seconds. 2. Avoid touching
your face. 3. Avoid close contact with sick people. 4. Stay
6 feet from others and wear a face covering or mask.
5. Cover a sneeze with a tissue or cough into your elbow.
6. Clean frequently touched objects and surfaces.
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
28 new cases
ONLINE
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
125 new cases
(Dec. 4)
What is COVID-19? A disease caused by a coronavirus.
Symptoms (including fever and shortness of breath) can
be severe, even fatal, though some cases are mild.
541-382-1811
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January 2021
February
March
April
May
AFTER HOURS
Newsroom ................................541-383-0348
Circulation ................................541-385-5800
NEWSROOM EMAIL
Business ........business@bendbulletin.com
City Desk .............news@bendbulletin.com
Features..................................................................
communitylife@bendbulletin.com
Sports ................. sports@bendbulletin.com
NEWSROOM FAX
541-385-5804
OUR ADDRESS
Street .............. 320 SW Upper Terrace Drive
Suite 200
Bend, OR 97702
Mailing ........... P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
B
ADMINISTRATION
Publisher
Heidi Wright ..............................541-383-0341
Editor
Gerry O’Brien .............................541-633-2166
DEPARTMENT HEADS
Advertising
Steve Rosen ................................541-383-0370
Circulation/Operations
Jeremy Feldman ......................541-617-7830
Finance
Anthony Georger ....................541-383-0324
Human Resources ................541-383-0340
State Senate vote sends gun bill to Brown
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Gov. Kate Brown is the final stop for the
Legislature’s major gun legislation of 2021.
The Senate voted Wednesday to accept
the House version of a bill that combines
requirements for locks and safe storage
of firearms with a narrowed ban on con-
cealed-handgun license holders bring fire-
arms into some public places, notably the
Capitol and the Portland airport.
The vote was 17-7. Sen. Betsy Johnson
of Scappoose was the lone Democrat to
join six Republicans in opposition to the
revised Senate Bill 554. Sen. Tim Knopp,
R-Bend, was among the “no” votes. Five
Republicans and one independent were re-
corded as excused or absent.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene and
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Commit-
tee, said the bill follows the principles laid
out by a 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The court for the first time concluded there
was an individual right to bear arms under
the Second Amendment to the U.S. Consti-
tution, but that right can be regulated.
“What we do know is that reasonable
regulations can be placed on these individ-
ual rights we have,” Prozanski said. “The
bottom line is that we have a bill that does
in fact address certain areas that we feel as
a state need to be regulated.”
Oregon would join 11 other states with
some form of requirements for locks and
safe storage of firearms, according to the
Kaiser Family Foundation.
As for the narrower scope of the ban on
guns in some public places, Prozanski said
it was a compromise. The original Senate
version would have left it to all local gov-
ernments to decide restrictions for them-
selves; the final version limits the option
to school districts, community colleges
and state universities. The option for cities,
counties and special districts was removed.
The ban still applies to the Capitol in
Salem and the passenger terminal at Port-
land International Airport.
As a state representative in 1995,
Prozanski voted for a law that preempts lo-
cal governments from regulating firearms,
other than discharging them in public. “But
I will tell you that even though I thought it
was the best decision I could make at that
time, today is a different day,” he said.
State of Safety Action, a nonprofit that
advocates prevention of gun violence, is-
sued a statement of support after the vote.
“Safe storage saves lives, helping prevent
unintentional shootings and firearm sui-
cides,” Henry Wessinger, the group’s pres-
ident, said. “It will make it harder for po-
tential school shooters to obtain a gun, and
it will support responsible gun ownership.”
Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod of
Lyons took issue not only with the restric-
tions but also the process that allowed the
House to merge its safe-storage bill with
the original Senate version, which dealt
with firearms in public places.
“This is an example of how bad this
building can get,” he said. “We were
locked out of the process in this bill.”
But like his counterpart in the House, Re-
publican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby,
Girod also took issue with the way some gun
rights advocates lobbied in opposition to it.
The Senate’s March 25 vote on the original
version prompted threats against some Re-
publican senators, and a recall effort aimed
at Girod, because they did not walk out to
call a halt to Senate business.
“There is a fringe group out there that is
sure not welcome in my office,” Girod said.
“It is not OK to threaten people’s lives, their
staff. It’s not an appropriate way to lobby.”
pwong@pamplinmedia.com
TALK TO A REPORTER
Bend/Deschutes Government
Brenna Visser .............................541-633-2160
Business
Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
Calendar .....................................541-383-0304
Crook County ..........................541-617-7829
Deschutes County ................541-617-7818
Education
Jackson Hogan ...........................541-617-7854
Fine Arts/Features
David Jasper .................................541-383-0349
General Assignment
Kyle Spurr ...................................541-617-7820
Health
Suzanne Roig ............................541-633-2117
Jefferson County ..................541-617-7829
La Pine ........................................541-383-0367
Public Lands/Environment
Michael Kohn ............................541-617-7818
Public Safety
Garrett Andrews ......................541-383-0325
Redmond
Jackson Hogan ...........................541-617-7854
Salem/State Government .. 541-617-7829
Sisters .........................................541-383-0367
Sunriver .....................................541-383-0367
REDMOND BUREAU
Mailing address ..................P.O. Box 6020
Bend, OR 97708
Phone ......................................... 541-617-7829
CORRECTIONS
The Bulletin’s primary concern is that all
stories are accurate. If you know of an
error in a story, call us at 541-383-0367.
TO SUBSCRIBE
Call us ......................541-385-5800
• Home delivery
and E-Edition ..........................$7 per week
• By mail .................................$9.50 per week
• E-Edition only ...................$4.50 per week
To sign up for our e-Editions, visit
www.bendbulletin.com to register.
TO PLACE AN AD
Classified ......................................541-385-5809
Advertising fax ..........................541-385-5802
Other information ....................541-382-1811
OBITUARIES
No death notices or obituaries are
published Mondays. When submitting,
please include your name, address
and contact number. Call to ask about
deadlines, Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
Phone ..........................................541-385-5809
Fax .................................................541-598-3150
Email .......................obits@bendbulletin.com
OTHER SERVICES
Back issues ................................541-385-5800
Photo reprints .........................541-383-0366
Apply for a job ........................541-383-0340
All Bulletin payments are accepted at the
drop box at City Hall or at The Bulletin,
P.O. Box 6020, Bend, OR 97708. Check
payments may be converted to an
electronic funds transfer. The Bulletin,
USPS #552-520, is published daily by
Central Oregon Media Group, 320 SW
Upper Terrace Drive, Bend, OR 97702.
Periodicals postage paid at Bend, OR.
Postmaster: Send address changes to The
Bulletin circulation department, P.O. Box
6020, Bend, OR 97708. The Bulletin retains
ownership and copyright protection of
all staff-prepared news copy, advertising
copy and news or ad illustrations. They
may not be reproduced without explicit
prior approval.
Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
As pandemic ebbs, an old fear is new
again in America: Mass shootings
and homes and jobs and how
emotionally unstable we’ve felt
over this past year. Now imag-
ine all that in people who are in
hopeless situations,” says Sam
Thompson, a Black resident
who started a neighborhood
group last summer to try to
find solutions.
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — After a year
of pandemic lockdowns, public
mass shootings are back. For
many, the fear of contracting
an invisible virus is suddenly
compounded by the forgotten
yet more familiar fear of get-
ting caught in a random act of
violence.
A database compiled by The
Associated Press, USA Today
and Northeastern University
that tracks mass killings — de-
fined as four or more dead,
not including the shooter —
showed just two public mass
shootings in 2020. Since Jan. 1,
there have been at least 11.
Yet while mass shootings
dropped out of the headlines,
the guns never went away. In-
stead, even as the U.S. inches
toward a post-pandemic fu-
ture, guns and gun violence
feel more embedded in the
American psyche than ever be-
fore. The fear and isolation of
the past year have worked their
way into every aspect of the
U.S. conversation on firearms,
from gun ownership to in-
ner-city violence to the erosion
of faith in common institutions
meant to keep us safe.
More gun owners, and different
More than 21 million peo-
ple completed a background
check to buy a gun last year,
shattering all previous records,
and a survey found that 40%
identified as new gun owners
— many of whom belong to
demographics not normally
associated with firearms, ac-
cording to the National Shoot-
ing Sports Foundation, a fire-
arm industry trade association.
Purchases of guns by Black
Americans increased 58% over
2019 and sales to Hispanics
went up 46%, the group says.
Gun advocates tie this in-
crease to pandemic anxiety
and a loss of faith in the ability
of police officers and govern-
ment institutions at all levels to
keep the public safe amid what
at first was a little-understood,
invisible menace. The eruption
Shafkat Anowar/AP
Firearms trainer Kevin Burke, left, instructs new gun owner Troy De-
guzman at Maxon Shooter’s Supplies and Indoor Range in Des Plaines,
Illinois, on Friday. More than 21 million people completed a back-
ground check to buy a gun last year.
of sustained racial injustice
protests after the police kill-
ing of George Floyd and calls
to reduce police funding also
contributed to more interest in
firearms.
The dramatic rise in fire-
arms ownership represents a
“tectonic shift in the conversa-
tion on guns,” says Mark Oliva,
the shooting sports founda-
tion’s director of public affairs.
“For these people, gun own-
ership and gun control was
until now a rhetorical debate.
It was something you could
discuss at a cocktail hour, but
they had no skin the game —
and then they bought guns,”
he says.
Gun rights advocates feel
good about what this could
mean for gun policy, with a
broader swath of society see-
ing themselves when they hear
about gun control efforts.
At the same time, gun-re-
lated homicides in midsized
and big cities in America have
skyrocketed during coronavi-
rus, and criminologists believe
the pandemic and the socio-
economic loss in many com-
munities are factors driving
that trend.
A study by the Council on
Criminal Justice tracked a 30%
increase in homicides overall
in a sample of 34 U.S. cities in
2020 as well as an 8% increase
in gun assaults.
Portland, a city of just over
650,000, is a stark example.
Last year, there were more
homicides than in any of the
previous 26 years. This year,
the city had tallied more than
340 shootings by late April —
an average of about three a day
— and was on track to blow
past last year’s homicide re-
cord. The shootings are mostly
impacting the city’s historically
Black neighborhoods and low-
er-income areas where corona-
virus has taken a heavy toll.
“It’s the way that we all feel
as people who have careers
Key provisions of the revised
Senate Bill 554:
• Guns must have trigger
or cable locks, be stored in a
locked container or in a gun
room. An offense is a Class
C violation, which carries a
maximum fine of $500, un-
less someone under age 18
obtains access, in which case
it is a Class A violation with
a maximum fine of $2,000.
No jail time is imposed for
violations.
• Stolen firearms must be
reported to police, generally
within 72 hours.
TALK TO AN EDITOR
City Julie Johnson ...................541-383-0367
Business, Features, GO! Magazine
Jody Lawrence-Turner ............541-383-0308
Editorials Richard Coe ...........541-383-0353
News Tim Doran .......................541-383-0360
Photos .........................................541-383-0366
Sports ..........................................541-383-0359
What’s in the Oregon
gun legislation
More politics than ever
When it comes to the gun
control debate, Americans
seem “more entrenched than
ever,” and those divisions are
playing out in state legislatures
around the nation, says David
Kopel, a law professor at the
University of Denver and re-
search director at the Indepen-
dence Institute, a Libertarian
think tank in Colorado that fa-
vors gun rights.
In conservative America,
mask mandates and economic
shutdowns have been lumped
together with gun control leg-
islation as examples of vast
government overreach.
In Oregon, armed protest-
ers angry that the state Capitol
was closed to the public due
to COVID-19 tried to storm
the building late last year in a
foreshadowing of the Jan. 6 in-
surrection at the U.S. Capitol.
In response, Democrats used
their supermajority to pass ad-
vance a bill that would man-
date safe storage for firearms
and make it illegal to bring a
gun into the state Capitol. The
state Senate approved the bill
Wednesday.
• Initial filing fees for con-
cealed-handgun licenses are
increased from $50 to $100,
and for renewals, from $50
to $75.
• The Oregon Capitol and
the Portland airport pas-
senger terminal are off-lim-
its to all firearms, including
those borne by holders of
concealed-handgun licenses,
except for law enforcement.
(The bill specifies airport
terminals with annual pas-
senger counts of 1 million;
Eugene and Medford were
at those thresholds in 2019
prior to the coronavirus pan-
demic. Sponsors say that the
ban applies only to Portland.)
Violations are considered
Class A misdemeanors with
maximum punishments of
one year in jail and a fine of
$6,250.
• Firearms bans for license
holders are optional at the
discretion of the govern-
ing boards of Oregon’s 197
school districts, 17 commu-
nity colleges, seven state uni-
versities and Oregon Health
& Science University. Notices
must be posted online, and
at entrances to buildings and
grounds.
• The final version removes
optional bans by cities, coun-
ties and special districts. Fire-
arms bans already apply to
state courts, which often are
in buildings maintained by
counties.
Find it all
online
bendbulletin.com
CLOCK SERVICE & REPAIR
TIMESMITHY
Marvin Davidson || 541-241-0653
61419 S Hwy 97, Suite Q • Bend • Behind Richard’s Donuts