State
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
A9
Gun bills evoke strong
emotions at Oregon Capitol
By Paris Achen
Capital Bureau
At age 24, Jenna Yuille lost
her mother in a mass shooting
at the Clackamas Town Center
in 2012. Four years later, her
father committed suicide using
a firearm.
“I have now lost not one
but both of my parents to gun
violence,” Yuille said. “I knew
that my dad wasn’t doing too
well, but I didn’t know how to
help him.”
A bill in the Legislature
would provide a tool for fami-
lies to block loved ones’ access
to firearms if they posed a risk
to themselves or others.
The legislation would cre-
ate an extreme risk protection
order process. Families could
obtain the temporary order —
up to a 12 months — by peti-
tioning to the court. The sub-
ject of the order could contest
its issuance in court.
Once issued, the protection
order could be renewed annu-
ally.
“What we’re trying to do
is provide the best course of
action to give family a chance
to help themselves to prevent
their veterans and other family
members from killing them-
selves, prevent suicide by
cop and worse, killing family
members in desperation,” said
Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas.
Oregon has one of the high-
est suicide rates in the nation,
including among veterans, Bo-
quist said.
Boquist’s
son,
Seth
Sprague, a 31-year-old U.S.
Navy veteran, used a firearm
to commit suicide Feb. 16,
2016. The tragedy spurred Bo-
Capital Bureau/Paris Achen
House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson, left,
embraces Jenna Yuille, regional manager of Americans
for Responsible Solutions, after Yuille’s testimony during
a hearing on gun safety bills Monday, April 17, 2017, at
the Oregon Capitol. Yuille’s parents were both killed in
separate incidents of gun violence.
quist to work with Senate Ma-
jority Ginny Burdick, D-Port-
land, to design legislation that
could help families intervene
when a loved one threatens to
take their own life. The bill is
modeled after a measure vot-
ers approved last year in Wash-
ington.
The National Rifle Asso-
ciation and local gun rights
advocates are opposed to the
bill.
“This bill allows for a pro-
tective order to take away your
Second Amendment rights, not
because of a criminal convic-
tion or mental health adjudica-
tion but based on third-party
allegations, using an eviden-
tiary standard that falls far be-
low what is normally required
for removing a firearm,” said
Keely Hopkins, the NRA’s Or-
egon liaison.
The bill also does nothing
to stop someone from killing
themselves in some other way
or to provide treatment for the
individual, Hopkins said.
Yuille knows the exact
date her father, Michael Pas-
salacqua of Milwaukie, went
to a gun shop and bought the
firearm he used to kill himself.
She found a receipt dated July
18, 2016, after his death.
“If I had known that a tool
like the extreme risk protec-
tion order was available I
would have used it, and my
dad probably wouldn’t have
been able to go buy a gun that
day,” Yuille testified Monday,
April 17, during a hearing on
the bill in the Senate Judiciary
Committee.
The bill is one of three
evoking strong emotions from
supporters and opponents.
Two other bills, proposed
by Gov. Kate Brown, would
close several gun purchase
loopholes and study reasons
for gun purchase denials.
One bill closes the so-
called “Charleston” loophole
that allows applicants to buy a
gun within three days regard-
less of whether Oregon State
Police has completed a manda-
tory background check on the
buyer. Another bill bans peo-
ple who have stalking convic-
tions or boyfriends who have
domestic violence convictions
from having a gun.
“It is a common sense,
life-saving bill that will protect
Oregon’s women and children
by closing the boyfriend loop-
hole, preventing convicted
stalkers from buying and pos-
sessing guns and keeping guns
out of the wrong hands by
closing the Charleston loop-
hole,” Brown testified.
Opponents and support-
ers of the bills filled a meet-
ing room and three overflow
rooms to testify on the bill.
Signs posted around the Cap-
itol reminded visitors no guns
are permitted in the building
without a concealed handgun
permit, and Oregon State Po-
lice had visibly enhanced se-
curity around the building.
Due to a scheduling error,
the bills will have to be re-
named and sent to the Rules
Committee, according to a
report by the Register Guard.
Tuesday is a deadline for leg-
islation. Anything that has not
been passed out of a legislative
committee by the end of the
day is considered dead with
exceptions for bills out of rules
and revenue committees.
Contributed photo/Oregon State Police
An Oregon State Police trooper with an elk that
was killed and left to waste. Wallowa resident Larry
Harshfield, 69, was arrested on multiple counts of
unlawfully taking and wasting elk April 8.
Man charged with allegedly
killing, wasting a dozen
elk in Wallowa County
By Steve Tool
EO Media Group
A Wallowa County man
is suspected of poaching and
wasting at least a dozen elk
on his property — and per-
haps 13 more found dead on
adjoining land.
Larry Harshfield, 69, was
arrested April 8 and charged
with 12 counts of taking elk
out of season and 12 counts
of wasting elk.
The charges stem from a
Feb. 11 search of the Harsh-
field Ranch, located in the
city of Wallowa. During the
search, Oregon Department
of Fish & Wildlife troop-
ers located 25 dead elk, 12
of which were located on
Harshfield’s property and 13
others were nearby.
The elk carcasses ap-
peared not to have had any
attempt to salvage meat from
them, according to ODFW.
Harshfield was charged
with poaching the 12 elk on
his property and was lodged
at the Wallowa County Jail.
Additional charges for the
13 dead elk on the adjoining
property will be referred to
the Wallowa County Dis-
trict Attorney for consider-
ation.
Mike Hansen, assistant
district wildlife biologist for
ODFW, said that the depart-
ment can issue a kill permit
or a hazing permit for elk
that cause consistent damage
to a farmer’s crops. Hansen
said Harshfield had contact-
ed ODFW about the permits.
The kill permit requires the
farmer to field dress and skin
the animal and take it to a
meat processing facility.
“He did not want to do
that,” Hansen said. “We gave
him a haze permit.”
A haze permit does not
allow for any killing of elk.
L EGISLATIVE B RIEFCASE
Bills reversing
GMO pre-emption
die in Oregon
Two bills that would have
allowed local governments in
Oregon to regulate genetically
engineered crops have died in
the Legislature.
Lawmakers
prohibited
most local governments from
restricting seed in 2013, but
Senate Bill 1037 and House
Bill 2469 would have exempt-
TREAT
YOUR
FEET
ed genetically modified or-
ganisms, or GMOs, from that
statewide pre-emption law.
Sen. Michael Dembrow,
D-Portland, said he’s decided
to let SB 1037 die during the
April 13 meeting of the Senate
Environment and Natural Re-
sources Committee, which he
chairs.
A legislative deadline pre-
viously killed HB 2469 in the
House Agriculture and Natural
Resources Committee.
There are still too many
looming questions about the
extent of cross-pollination
of conventional and organic
crops from GMOs and the ef-
ficacy of mediation aimed at
promoting coexistence, Dem-
brow said.
The committee recently
heard conflicting testimo-
ny about the frequency of
cross-pollination among ge-
netically engineered, conven-
tional and organic crops.
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While supporters of SB
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opponents of the bill said very
few organic growers report-
ed crop loss from GMOs to
USDA.
No growers in Oregon have
taken advantage of a mediation
program overseen by USDA
to resolve GMO disputes, said
Barry Bushue, president of the
Oregon Farm Bureau, which
opposes the bill.
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05506