CEASEFIRE oregon News
November 2011
PORTLAND HAS LOST A TRUE LEADER
Dear Friends,
We are shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Rob Ingram, director of Portland's Office of Youth Violence Prevention. Rob was a friend to Ceasefire Oregon and the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation, as well as a personal friend to many of our supporters and board members.
Rob Ingram was a gift to our town. He reached out to young people in Portland to help them follow a path that would improve their lives. He listened to our youth. He listened to all of us. He was always ready to lend a hand to anyone who needed it.
I saw Rob every other Friday at the Gang Violence Task Force meeting. He always brought with him his indomitable energy, his endless patience, and his deepest compassion for all people in all walks of life.
His bright and ready smile will be missed forever.
He ended our meetings by saying, "Let's get to work!" I have a feeling that his true task has now just begun, so in his absence, let us now look to each other to lend a shoulder to our work and a hand to those in need.
We send our deepest sympathies to Rob's wife and five children. He spoke of them all with happiness and pride and a deep, unending love that made his eyes sparkle.
All of our lives are better now because of Rob Ingram.
Thank you so much, Rob. We all miss you.
Penny Okamoto
Executive Director
Ceasefire Oregon
Americans want stronger gun laws. A poll taken Jan. 11–13, 2011, shows overwhelming support for several proposed laws to keep guns away from people who cannot lawfully own them. The poll shows that 86% of Americans, including 81% of gun owners, support requiring background checks for all gun sales. 94% of Americans favor requiring the reporting of lost and stolen weapons, a requirement that took effect in Portland this year. 58% of Americans support the banning of high-capacity ammunition magazines, while only 36% oppose such a ban. For more information, see the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website or this article by one of the pollsters.
Ceasefire Oregon
is very pleased that the Portland City Council enacted new and revised ordinances to reduce the illegal use of guns in Portland. These revisions to the Portland City Code took effect in January 2011 and are now the law in Portland. Ceasefire Oregon strongly supported the ordinances that make it unlawful to endanger a minor by allowing access to a firearm (Portland City Code Section 14A.60.050), require the reporting of lost and stolen guns (Section 14A.60.060), and increase the penalties for the possession of loaded guns in public places (14A.60.010).
Thank you, Mayor Adams and Portland Commissioners, for standing up to the gun lobby.
National Law Enforcement Groups Launch Partnership to Fight Gun Violence
In October 2010, ten national law enforcement leadership organizations established the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence. The partnership will focus on effective strategies to address gun violence, calling its current level a "crisis" and "unacceptable."
"Every day, gun violence threatens the safety and well-being of citizens and law enforcement officers throughout this country, said Chief Michael J. Carroll, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "Law enforcement understands and embraces our central role in combating illegal firearms and gun violence."
For more information, please see the partnership's press release and statement of principles.
Tragic Shootings in Oregon
Oregonians continue to be shot and killed and injured in senseless shootings across the state. Our thoughts are with those who have been injured by gun violence and those whose loved ones have been killed. Firearms are used to kill and maime 100,000 people in the United States every year.
As our state and country are plagued by gun violence, the need for citizens and legislators to stand up is great. It is time to stand together to prevent senseless violence and unnecessary death and injury. Ceasefire Oregon works to prevent gun violence. Please help us stop the shootings.
Shootings in U.S. Much Higher than in Other High-Income Countries
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence recently released its annual God Bless America poster, documenting that in one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States. The Brady Campaign also examined gun murders relative to population size. Citizens of the U.S. are murdered with guns at a rate five times higher than our nearest high-income neighbor, Canada, and at rates 10 to 44 times higher than the other high-income nations.
The United States must do more to prevent gun violence. We must make it harder for dangerous people to get guns.
Some Concealed Handgun Permit Holders Commit Murder
The gun lobby frequently claims that people who have permits to carry concealed handguns are all law-abiding. That is simply not true. Since May 2007, at least 16 mass shootings (shootings in which at least three people were killed) were committed by men who had permits to carry concealed weapons. These include Christopher Bryan Speight, the 39-year-old man who allegedly shot and killed eight people, including three teenagers and a four-year-old child, on Jan. 19, 2010, in Appomattox, Virginia.
For details on killlings committed by holders of permits to carry concealed weapons, please Click here and here. The first site, maintained by the Violence Policy Center, reports that from May 2007 to Sept. 30, 2010, at least 202 people were killed by concealed handgun permit holders, including nine law enforcement officers. As the VPC explains, "the gun lobby has been successful at hiding the truth about crimes committed by concealed handgun permit holders by forcing most states to keep secret the identities of permit holders." Because the VPC is thus forced to rely on news reports for the information, the total number of people killed by permit holders is probably much higher.
Guns Present an Unwarranted Risk of Unintentional Shooting
Dennis Henigan, vice president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, recently examined the risk of unintentional shootings posed by guns. His conclusion? "So, yes, the accidental shooting by the NRA safety instructor provides a teachable moment. It teaches us this: the gun in the home, or in a public place, owned and carried even by a law-abiding and well-trained adult, presents a persistent risk of death and injury to the innocent. That risk is far greater than the often-claimed protective benefits of guns."
Click here to read more.
