Welcome to the Ceasefire Oregon website.
We work to prevent gun violence.
Ceasefire Oregon works to prevent gun violence by advocating reasonable, effective gun laws. We educate the public and legislators about gun violence, lobby on behalf of bills that will help make our communities safer, and work to prevent the passage of bills that would make it easier for dangerous people to obtain and carry firearms.
About 30,000 people are killed by firearms in this country every year. More than twice as many are injured. This is a public health crisis of staggering proportions. Guns are too easily available to felons, fugitives, kids, and people with serious mental heath problems. To reduce gun violence, we must make it more difficult for people who cannot lawfully own guns to obtain them.
To find out more about our work and to help, please click the links above. We are currently dealing with several bills now before the Oregon legislature. Please click the "Advocacy" button above to make your voice heard. Take action now to prevent future shootings.
BAN GUNS IN SCHOOLS!
Last September, the Oregon Court of Appeals invalidated a longstanding administrative rule that prohibited guns on Oregon college campuses, finding that the rule was preempted by a state statute. As a result, people with concealed handgun licenses can now carry loaded, hidden handguns on Oregon’s public college campuses.
Gun extremists are insisting that they are also entitled to bring their loaded, hidden handguns into high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools throughout Oregon. They have, for example, already strong-armed the Newberg School District into dropping its ban on guns in schools.
Ceasefire Oregon calls on Governor Kitzhaber to seek, and the Oregon legislature to enact, a legislative ban on guns in Oregon schools. Ceasefire Oregon concurs in the judgment of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators that guns on campuses pose an elevated and unacceptable risk to students and staff.
On October 1, The Oregonian called on the legislature to ban guns on college campuses: the editorial is here.
Ceasefire Oregon's op-ed calling for a ban on guns on college campuses was published in The Oregonian on Oct. 4. You'll find it here.
Here is a copy of the op-ed with footnotes, citing the sources for the facts stated.
Please join us in urging the Oregon legislature to ban guns in all Oregon public schools, from elementary school through college.
CEASEFIRE OREGON OPPOSES HR 822
In November, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011” (HR 822). This bill would override the laws of Oregon by requiring us to accept concealed handgun permits from other states even if that out-of-state permit does not require the same safety standards that Oregon requires. The bill is now in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where we hope it dies.
The Eugene Register-Guard has published an excellent editorial explaining why Oregon and other states should oppose HR 822.
HR 822 would undercut Oregon's state rights, create serious problems for law enforcement, and weaken Oregon's standards for granting people a license to carry a concealed handgun legally on our streets.
Currently, Oregon's law holds concealed handgun license (CHL) holders to higher standards than many other states. Oregon's requirements include handgun competence, character references, and that the applicant be at least 21 years of age. Oregon prohibits concealed carrying by dangerous criminals, including those who have been convicted of a misdemeanor, such as assault, harassment or driving while intoxicated, in the four years prior to applying for a CHL. Oregon also prohibits people who have an outstanding warrant or are required to register as a sex offender from obtaining a CHL. Many other states do not have these requirements or prohibitions. If HR 822 passes, these dangerous people could legally carry a concealed handgun in Oregon.
HR 822 would create serious problems for law enforcement. It will be very difficult to determine the validity of permits from all states because no national database exists to quickly identify those who legitimately hold a concealed carry permit. Permits can be easily forged. In addition, this bill would enable criminal traffickers who have concealed carry permits from other states to bring cars full of loaded guns into states with higher standards, like Oregon.
Some argue that a national concealed carry permit would be just like a driver's license, but that is not true. To obtain a driver’s license, people have to pass a test, prove their competency behind the wheel, and get a photo ID card. They must also register and insure their car. HR 822 would impose no comparable safeguards.
Finally, there is no Second Amendment right to carry a concealed weapon outside the home. In Heller and McDonald, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects a person’s right to defend themselves with a handgun in their own home. The Supreme Court specifically said that reasonable regulations to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people are constitutional. Since Heller and McDonald, no federal court that has considered this issue has found a constitutional right to carry a concealed gun in public.
During the 2011 Oregon legislative session, Ceasefire Oregon worked to stop a similar concealed carry reciprocity bill. The bill was not enacted. Now the NRA is trying to force reciprocity on all the states regardless of what each state has decided is best for its citizens.
Please call or email Senators Wyden and Merkley today and ask them to vote NO on the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011:
Senator Ron Wyden
Phone: (202) 224-5244
E-Mail: http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
Senator Jeff Merkley
Phone: (202) 224-3753
E-Mail: http://merkley.senate.gov/contact/
You can find additional information about the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011 at these websites:
http://www.ourlivesourlaws.org/
http://www.bradycampaign.org/media/press/view/1433/
And here is a terrific op-ed on why HR 822 is a terrible bill.
Thank you for your help.
