CEASEFIRE oregon Visit the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation
Conference on Preventing Gun Violence
September 10, 2008, Portland, Oregon
Click here for details.
Download our report card for Oregon on laws shielding families from gun violence.
You may print the PDF on both sides of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, and then fold the paper twice to create a three-panel brochure. Feel free to print and distribute the brochures.
How You Can Help Prevent Gun Violence
Nearly 30,000 people in the United States are killed by firearms every year. Twice as many are injured. Gun violence in this country is a public health crisis of staggering proportions.
To reduce injuries and deaths by gun violence, we must make it more difficult for felons, fugitives, young people, and the mentally ill to obtain guns. Here’s how you can help prevent gun violence:
1. If you have a gun that you want to keep, unload it, lock it in a gun safe, and lock up ammunition separately.
The 15-year-old boy who fired into classrooms at a high school in Gresham on April 10, 2007, took the high-powered rifle he used from his home. The 14-year-old boy who took aim at a Washington County sheriff’s deputy on January 1, 2007, near Hillsboro obtained the semiautomatic rifle from his father’s unlocked gun safe and loaded it with armor-piercing bullets. Protect your children and your children’s friends by locking up your guns and your ammunition.
2. Students: If you hear that someone plans to bring a gun to school, call this number toll free: 1-866-SPEAK-UP. You can call anonymously, and your information will be passed on to law enforcement. In 81 percent of school shootings, including the recent one in Gresham, the shooters told others about their plans beforehand. You can prevent the next school shooting by calling 1-866-SPEAK-UP. For more information, visit www.paxusa.org.
3. Before sending your children to play at someone else’s house, ASK those parents whether there’s a gun in the house and, if so, whether it is safely stored. Don’t permit your children to play in homes where there’s a gun that’s not locked up. For information on the Portland ASK Campaign, please visit www.PortlandAsks.org.
4. If you have a gun that you don’t want, get rid of it safely. You can turn it in to Portland police officers in return for a $50 gift certificate on December 8, 2007, in Portland; please visit the website of the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation for details. You can give your unwanted gun to law enforcement officers throughout the state on most other days (though gift certificates aren’t provided). Call the law enforcement agency first; here are the phone numbers.
5. Call or write your legislators and urge them to enact legislation to prevent gun violence. Please visit our Legislation page to see bills currently before the Oregon legislature.
These are just some of the things that you can do personally to help reduce gun violence. For more information, to volunteer to do more, or to make a financial contribution, please use the links at the top of this page.
Ceasefire Oregon works to reduce gun violence by advocating reasonable, effective gun safety 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 irresponsible bills proposed by the gun lobby.
News
School District Can Prohibit
Employees' Guns at School
The Jackson County Circuit Court ruled on November 9, 2007, that the Medford School District can prohibit its employees from bringing guns onto school property. The court held that Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 166.170 does not preclude the school district from enforcing its employment policy concerning guns.
The Medford School District’s policy, like the policy in many Oregon school districts, “prohibits employees, district contractors and/or their employees and district volunteers from possessing dangerous or deadly weapons or firearms on District property or at school sponsored events.” (Quotation is from the court’s order.)
Shirley Katz, a teacher at South Medford High School and a member of the National Rifle Association, has a concealed handgun license, as do over 93,400 other Oregonians (number as of January 2007). Katz sued the school district, claiming that she had a right to carry her concealed handgun on campus and that she intended to do so. She asserted that the school district’s policy violated ORS 166.170, and asked the court to prohibit the school district from enforcing its policy against her.
Police Chiefs Recommend
Actions to Reduce Gun Violence
In September 2007, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) issued a report titled Taking a Stand: Reducing Gun Violence in Our Communities. The report is a product of an IACP summit held in April 2007, in which over 180 law enforcement executives and others participated. The recommendations focus on three main areas (quotations are from the report):
“Keeping Communities Safe by improving public understanding about the risks of gun violence, working with community leaders, and reducing easy access to firearms, especially for at-risk individuals.
“Preventing and Solving Gun Crime by stopping the flow of illegal guns, sharing information among jurisdictions, and training officers to respond to gun crimes, including tracing all guns.
“Keeping Police Officers Safe by reducing the firepower available to criminals, providing protective technologies, and improving training and support for officers in handling guns and situations involving guns and their aftermath.”
Rise in Crime Rate Tied to Easy Access to Guns
“Easy access to guns and a willingness, even an eagerness, to settle disputes with them” emerge as the predominant theme of a reported rise in murder, robbery, and gun assaults since January 2005, according to an article by Kate Zernike published on March 9, 2007, in the New York Times.