A Gun Violence Review of 2015

2015 was another bloody year for America.  And, once again, our federal lawmakers have done nothing at all to staunch the flow of blood.  It is shameful.

On Christmas Day alone, there were at least 27 Americans shot and killed and 63 were wounded, according to the Washington Post:

The number of Americans killed in gun homicides on Christmas Day is comparable to the number of people killed in gun homicides in an entire year in places like Australia or Britain. The 27 people killed by guns in America on Christmas this year is equal to the total number of people killed in gun homicides in an entire year in Austria, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Estonia, Bermuda, Hong Kong and Iceland, combined.

And, as pointed out by my blogging friend over at Common Gunsense, there were at least three murder/suicide shootings.

It's total insanity.  It's unacceptable.

Mass shootings of four or more people continue to increase.  The Reddit Mass Shooting Tracker has tracked at least 372 this year, as of this posting.  That's more than one a day in American!  Is this the America we wish to see??

You can see each and every one of them at the Mass Shootings Tracker page from the Gun Violence Archive site, where you can also find the map I posted here.

And it's no coincidence that gun sales are increasing as well.  I've posted before about how the increase in gun sales mirrors an increase in active shooter events.  As VOX has reported, 2015 promises to be a record year in gun sales.  And I've certainly noticed an uptick in shootings of all types.

One of those horrific mass shootings was, as you know, here in Oregon, at Umpqua Community College, with nine people killed and up to nine injured before the shooter killed himself.

The Trace has posted an article listing the 10 Americans Who Changed the Gun Debate in 2015, including a researcher, a conceal carry permit holder at the Umpqua shooting, a hunter fed up with the NRA, a mother of a shooting victim, a politician, a policy adviser, a lawyer on a landmark case, and others.

The Trace also posted some of the Most Powerful Sentences About Gun Violence published this year.  One of my favorites, by writer Dylan Matthews, regarding how some Conservatives don't want to "count" suicides in gun death data: 

Obviously there's tremendous variation in particular people's ethical frameworks, but where I come from, a death is a death.

Looking back over the year, I have to say that 2015 is the tipping point.  Momentum has built.  The public wants change like never before.  Sandy Hook was a wake-up call, and since then everyone is noticing the increase in mass shootings as, one after another, the horror passes from one location to another as the days pass.  More and more organizations are forming to keep up with the demand of people wanting to help with the change.  More voices are calling for reasonable gun violence prevention laws.

And Oregon is no exception.  This year Ceasefire Oregon and the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety, working with responsible legislators, passed and enacted a universal background check bill in Oregon, SB 941.  Now gun sellers have no excuses for selling guns to prohibited people, and those people are more likely to get caught.  Oregon passed a bill to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, SB 525.  And SB 385 also passed, allowing judges to prohibit guns being carried into courtrooms.  These bills "provided a beacon of hope for gun reform momentum."

Given that 40% of guns used in crimes come from private transfer, I think we should see a real change in the level of shootings here in Oregon in 2016 and beyond.

Pro-gun forces attempted, in a childish and vengeful abuse of the system, to recall four of the state legislators who sponsored SB 941.  All of those efforts failed miserably.  And over and over again, those forces supported pro-criminal efforts to "subvert" the system, and continue to call for their supporters to "defy" the laws on the books.  Clearly, we must continue our efforts to protect Oregonians against these pro-criminal, pro-gun forces and keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Ceasefire Oregon's Central Coast chapter has been very active, too, including a gun turn-in that brought in 138 unwanted but operational guns and 95 high-capacity ammo magazines.

What will 2016 bring?  On a national level, I expect to see a continued increase in grass-roots efforts to pass reasonable gun regulation laws.  If our stubborn and pro-gun lawmakers don't follow, we will vote them out!

As for Ceasefire Oregon, we have a plan to reduce gun violence by 30-50% in the next five years.  But your help is needed.  Together, we can find a new trajectory for our communities away from gun violence.  Let's make it a New Year's resolution!


ADDENDUM (1/1/16): A related article by the Washington Post:  "2015 was a grim year for American gun violence."

2011 in Review - Part II (what we've done)

In Part I of this two-part posting, I detailed the gun-related crimes from the Eugene area.  Now, let me turn to how our efforts were spent in 2011.

2011 was a very busy year for the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation.  First off, we celebrated the one-year anniversary of this blog, New Trajectory, which has helped us reach additional audiences and understand the pro-gun side better.

We have organized three gun turn-ins in Portland over the past 13 months, cosponsored by Portland Mayor Sam Adams, the City of Portland, and the Portland Police Bureau.  These events removed over 400 more guns from our community.  In the words of Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk, referring to our 16 years of gun turn-ins: "The past successes of the Ceasefire Oregon Gun Turn-in are significant.  Collecting over 7,500 firearms is not only commendable, but clearly marks Ceasefire Oregon as a success."

We hosted a dinner with distinguished guests in Portland, and we participated in the annual Safety Fair at the Portland Zoo.  We also continued to distribute ASK brochures, which encourage parents to ask whether there are guns where their children play.

We've had a busy year ramping up our activities in the Eugene / Springfield area.  Each of the last few years, shootings have been increasing, as I detailed in Part I of this two-part posting.

In May of 2011, Colin Goddard visited our area, giving presentations to local students and the public and showing a documentary about the shooting, entitled "Living for 32."  Young, handsome, charismatic, and humble, Colin proved to be an excellent advocate for sensible gun laws in our country.  Over the course of five days, Colin gave eight presentations to an estimated 877 people, including students at Thurston High School (site of the Kip Kinkel shootings), South Eugene High School, Oregon State University, and the University of Oregon, and in three cities (Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis).  He also gave interviews with two radio stations, three TV stations, and three newspapers.  Colin continues to tour America, speaking mainly at universities, but also giving presentations of the film and addressing Congress.

On Mother's Day, we were represented in the annual Million Mom March awareness walk in downtown Eugene.  With over a hundred attendees, including Mayor Kitty Piercy (a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns), Colin Goddard from the Brady Campaign, and organizations such as Veteran's for Peace, speeches were made in honor of slain officer Chris Kilcullen, and then the marchers walked several miles along the Willamette River.  There was excellent media coverage of this event. 

In June, corresponding with National ASK Day, Ceasefire had a table at the famous Eugene Saturday Market to engage Market-goers. 

In late August, Ceasefire had a "car" in the Peace Train, where a number of local Peace groups form a train of moving plywood "cars" behind a  train "engine", each car decorated with the group's name and support for peace and non-violence, as part of the Eugene Celebration parade.

Finally, toward the end of the year, we had an information table set up at the Bijou Theatre's showing of The Interrupters.

in 2011, our legislative affiliate, Ceasefire Oregon, successfully opposed 25 dangerous bills introduced in the Oregon legislature which would have significantly weakened Oregon gun laws, some substantially.

Among the bills the gun lobby worked hardest to enact were bills that would have (1) permitted anyone with a concealed handgun license (CHL) from any state to carry loaded, concealed handguns in our state even if the person did not meet Oregon’s CHL requirements; (2) removed the Oregon State Police from conducting background checks for gun dealers, sending them directly to the FBI instead, and thus enabling Oregonians with serious mental health problems to nonetheless purchase guns (because their records aren’t in the FBI’s databases); and (3) required sheriffs to keep the names of CHL holders secret, thus ensuring that sheriffs could not be held accountable for their decisions regarding the granting of CHLs, precluding people with legitimate concerns about specific individuals from learning whether those people had CHLs, and preventing the media and other researchers from ascertaining exactly how many CHL holders commit crimes.

All those bills were defeated.  The gun lobby, in fact, saw only one of its proposals enacted, provisions regarding the carrying of firearms on ATVs, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.  Sadly, no sooner had that bill taken effect, when there was an accident where a rifle transported loaded and unsecured (as is now legal to do) was unintentionally discharged, wounding a hunter.

Formidable challenges to sensible gun regulation in Oregon in 2011 were also posed by the courts.  Pushed by an extremist firearms group, a case reached the Oregon Court of Appeals, which overturned a long-standing policy by the state university system to prohibit guns on the property of Oregon universities.  Bolstered by that decision, that extremist group is now bullying grade school systems to allow guns on their campuses.  Threatening endless lawsuits if they didn't comply, they persuaded the Newberg school system to allow concealed weapons there, despite an initial resistance by their superintendent and school board.  It is ridiculous that extremists are able to endanger our children in this manner.

In another strike against common sense, the Oregon Supreme Court also ruled that medical marijuana card holders could now be allowed to carry concealed weapons in public.  "Guns for Stoners" makes no sense, given that there is no law in Oregon prohibiting the carrying of loaded weapons if under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  It only becomes illegal when the trigger is pulled, but then it's too late.  Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, so this is how it will stay unless the legislature steps in.

So, as you can see, 2011 was a year of great strides in getting our message out to the public and opposing dangerous legislation, but more needs done to protect us against those who wish to roll back protections for the public.  We welcome any and all help you wish to give.

2011 in Review - Part I (gun-related crimes)

2011 is out, and 2012 is in.  Happy New Year's to you all.  I hope it has been a safe one for everyone reading this.

2011 was pretty deadly here in the Eugene / Springfield area of Oregon.  There have been 14 shootings reported in the media (though most suicides and accidents go unreported) in this small-town area.  This is the highest number of shootings for at least the last four years in my area (since I've been keeping track), and probably much longer.  9 dead, 6 injured.  That is only for my area, not for the rest of Oregon.  It has been a particularly deadly year in southern Oregon and over in the Coos Bay area, as well as Portland, but I'm not going into those here.

There were 2 murder/suicides in that number (here and here) in the Eugene area.  Questions still surround these, as there is no known motive for either of them, and no note.

For those of you convinced that drug dealers and gangs are responsible for most shootings, here in my area only 2 of the shootings are linked to them. Neither was fatal.  These don't count the accidental shooting (of a friend mistaken as a robber) at a medical marijuana grower in Springfield, or a shooting at another medical marijuana grower in Eugene.

There were also a record number of armed robberies.  A handful, 4 or 5, involved threats with knives.  About that many had only a note and no weapon.  But 27 armed robberies in my area had robbers who used guns.  Nearly all were of businesses or banks.  Luckily, none of them resulted in any injures.  And in none of them did anyone try to resist by drawing their own concealed weapon.  The bit of money the robbers were after is hardly worth a life-and-death shootout. 

There were two shootings at homes that were ruled as defensive, "justified" shootings.  One was a domestic dispute involving a property dispute between a man and his sister's partner, with questionable circumstances that led to the death of the brother (the shooter claimed he was attacked with a tire iron, but friends of the deceased claim the sister and her partner wanted the brother's land, and why did the partner walk out of the house to confront the deceased instead of calling the sheriff?).  The other was where two suspects invaded a legal marijuana grower's property to steal marijuana.  The homeowners pulled out a shotgun.  Can you guess who got injured?  Not the robbers. 

The shooting that made the most headlines was the death of a traffic cop, Officer Chris Kilcullen, at the hands of a dangerously mentally ill woman, Cheryl Kidd, during a traffic stop in April.  The shooter had been mentally ill for a long time, schizophrenic, and convinced that the police were out to shoot her.  She was so dangerously ill that her doctor had sent her to the hospital a couple months before to be evaluated.  Nonetheless, she had been able to legally purchase her gun at a local sporting goods store, clearing a background check.  (Oregon only sent two records of mentally ill persons to the NICS background check system in all of 2011, despite a legal mandate).  There is now a stretch of highway dedicated to Officer Kilcullen, but the best tribute would be to pass legislation to strengthen the background check system to prevent this from happening.  So far, that hasn't been done.

There were also a very few suicides reported (they only get reported if they are very public in some manner), a couple accidental shootings (one was of an off-duty police officer who, while at a shooting range, shot himself while trying to remove his loaded rifle from his car), and an assortment of non-fatal and general gun crimes of all types.  In all, there were at least 55 gun-related crimes that were reported in the media for my area, that I am aware of.  Who knows how many weren't reported in the media.  I occasionally hear of one or two, and gun crimes are so commonplace that most are not reported in all media outlets, just one or two, so unless I read them all every day (which rarely happens), then sometimes they get past me.

In my next post I will focus on our efforts to reduce gun crimes in my area in 2011, and our successes and obstacles.

Have a safe and happy New Year.  Together, we can work to create a new trajectory for our communities away from gun violence.

In Part II of this 2-part posting, I talk about our accomplishments and challenges from 2011, and how Ceasefire Oregon has worked to reduce gun violence in that year.

Image taken from here.

Oregon Legislators Refuse to be Intimidated by the Gun Lobby

Unlike many legislative bodies elsewhere, the Oregon Senate and a substantial portion of the Oregon House have refused to be intimidated by the gun lobby.  Ceasefire Oregon applauds the many legislators who stood up to the gun lobby this year and refused to succumb to its strong-arm tactics.  We thank, in particular, Senators Ginny Burdick, Suzanne Bonamici, Jackie Dingfelder, and Floyd Prozanski and Representatives Mary Nolan, Carolyn Tomei, and Tina Kotek.  We sincerely thank all the legislators who refused to make it easier to obtain guns or to carry loaded, hidden handguns in our state.

At the behest of various elements of the gun lobby, other legislators introduced 25 bills that would have weakened Oregon’s gun laws, many substantially.

Ceasefire Oregon volunteers carefully tracked these bills throughout the session, conducted extensive research, submitted detailed written testimony against several bills, and attended hearings to testify in person against those bills.  We sent email alerts to our supporters urging them to contact legislators about specific bills, and many did.  We worked with other community groups on mutual concerns, and we were in regular contact with key legislators.

We are pleased to report great success this session.  Once again, the time and energy needed to defeat the dangerous bills meant that we could not advance bills we wanted to enact.  But all the time spent working to defeat those dangerous bills paid off.

Among the bills the gun lobby worked hardest to enact were bills that would have (1) permitted anyone with a concealed handgun license (CHL) from any state to carry loaded, concealed handguns in our state even if the person did not meet Oregon’s CHL requirements; (2) removed the Oregon State Police from conducting background checks for gun dealers, sending them directly to the FBI instead, and thus enabling Oregonians with serious mental health problems to nonetheless purchase guns (because their records aren’t in the FBI’s databases); and (3) required sheriffs to keep the names of CHL holders secret, thus ensuring that sheriffs could not be held accountable for their decisions regarding the granting of CHLs, precluding people with legitimate concerns about specific individuals from learning whether those people had CHLs, and preventing the media and other researchers from ascertaining exactly how many CHL holders commit crimes.

All those bills were defeated.  The gun lobby, in fact, saw only one of its proposals enacted, provisions regarding the carrying of firearms on ATVs, motorcycles, and snowmobiles.  Ceasefire Oregon opposed the original bill in principle, but decided early on that due to its limited impact, we would not spend our limited resources working against it.  After the language was combined with provisions curtailing the ability of felons to lawfully possess guns under state law, even parts of the gun lobby opposed the bill, which was enacted.  All of the gun lobby’s other bills were defeated.

In May the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on whether Oregon should prohibit handguns carried by CHL holders in public schools.  A group of Ceasefire Oregon members attended the hearing to demonstrate that sensible gun restrictions have broad public support.

We at Ceasefire Oregon are all volunteers.  With your help and support, we will continue to stand up to the gun lobby and work to defeat its many attempts to make guns easily accessible and pervasive.

With additional volunteer help, we could also work to enact positive, common-sense gun laws, such as laws requiring that all gun purchasers first pass a background check, that all guns include chamber load indicators, and that no guns be allowed in certain public places, including schools.  Please let us know if you can help.

2010, A Violent Year for Eugene/Springfield

Happy New Year!  May 2011 be more peaceful than 2010.

I've been keeping a record of shootings in the Eugene/Springfield area here in Oregon, and it's not looking so rosy.  Personally, I didn't exactly pop any corks to celebrate.  Instead, I made this blog.

Oh, sure, call me a grump.  Auld Lang Syne, right?  It's better to think of the bright side of things.  Water under the bridge.  But let's not tell that to the families of the victims, okay?  This'll just be whispered about after all those pesky news articles fade away and we go on to ignore the daily barrage of other shootings.  Just flip the channel over to "Dancing With the Stars" and fugetaboutit.  Not me.  Or you, I hope.  Or our lawmakers.

Consider, if you will, that in 2010, the Eugene/Springfield area had at least thirteen shootings, encompassing neighboring towns in Lane County as well.  This includes at least 3 suicides, 3 (possibly 4) homicides, 3 attempted homicides, 1 fatal and 1 non-fatal law enforcement shooting, and 2 fatal self-defense shootings.  (Of course, this doesn't include other suicides or accidental shootings, since, apparently, no one actually records those or reports on those -- hospitals are not required to report them to anyone).   And these are just the incidents that included firearms.  There were a couple other non-vehicular murders that didn't use firearms, as well.

Compare this with only about 6 incidents in 2009 that I could find, five of them fatal, and 7 in 2008, 3 of which were fatal.  Shootings have doubled.

So what?  What does it matter?   We can't change peoples' behaviors, can we?  Or reduce guns used in crimes, right?  Think again.  It's not easy, but we can do it if we voice our concerns and help people, and our lawmakers, see more peaceful and safer alternatives.  Keep reading this blog, and you'll find those alternatives.

For now, the first thing you can do is pay attention to the news that you hear, and help others to do so.  Spread the word on events and the importance of preventing gun violence -- striking up conversations with friends, sharing on Facebook, or letters to the editor.

The second thing you can do is contact me to volunteer or donate.  No, don't stop reading just cuz I said that.  I don't expect much.  You'd be surprised how even the tiniest one-time involvement can make a big difference.  

Now, for a listing of shooting events in 2010, for the Eugene/Springfield area:

2/6/10:  Ronald Leo Langlois (44) shot himself while working at his job in a train yard in Eugene.  Initially it looked like a homicide.  Once again, mentally-unstable people shouldn't have guns!  LINK

 

4/3/10:  Uriel Gonzalez Hernandez, 18, gang member and illegal immigrant, shot up the home of a sleeping couple and their baby in Springfield, mistaking the home for a rival gang member's (Oopsie!).  Luckily, no one was injured.  LINK

7/26/10:  An unidentified male shows up at a local Chinese restaurant with fresh bullet wounds.  He lives, but apparently doesn't share much with police.  I doubt it was the Kung POW chicken!  LINK

9/20/10:  This one is especially tragic.  A father, Richard Rauscher, despondent over a recent divorce, shot to death his two little girls, Aidan (9) and Eryn (7), in their sleep, then shot himself to death, near Junction City.  My son was friends with one of the girls' best friends.  Apparently Rauscher would go over to neighbors' homes to weep about his situation, but apparently no one stopped to think he might harm himself or his children.  Did the mother know there was a gun in the house, I wonder?  Once again, firearms don't belong in homes with children, or homes with mentally unstable people!  LINK

10/28/10:  Mark Casterline, 49, threatened Lane County Sherriff's deputy Sgt. Dave Rogers with a knife. in Veneta, after Rogers responded to a domestic dispute between Casterline and Casterline's sister.  A beanbag round didn't stop Casterline, to Rogers shot him down.  LINK

11/13/10:  As a crowd of youths gathered outside a rap concert at Aminata's Bar and Grill in Eugene, gunfire rang out between one youth at the door of the restaurant and a group on the other side of the street.  Bullets hit buildings and cars.  By some miracle, only one 21-year old male bystander was wounded.  None of the shooters were identified or captured.  LINK

11/26/10:  Two men tried to rob a Dutch Brother's drive-though coffee stand in Eugene.  Despite a company policy against gun possession, the unnamed male barista pulled out a gun and shot one of the robbers, Sirus Combs, 27.  The other robber got away and hasn't been caught.  Though the barista was deemed to be justified in his actions, and within his rights to protect himself, I can't help but wonder if the robber had to die.  After getting the money, Combs told the barista to turn around, and the barista thought he was about to be executed, so he pulled his own gun and had a shootout.  The second robber, Brandon Lee Plunk, 27, also exchanged fire and then ran off, and was eventually caught.  I wonder, now, how many more similar robberies will wind up in death because of his actions, as future robbers shoot first.  LINK   For comparison, here's a LINK to a story about an earlier, similar robbery of a Dutch Brother's stand which didn't go that way, and turned out relatively fine.

12/15/10:  Michael Thomas Mason, 27, an Afghanistan war veteran and medic who was suffering from an acute episode of post-traumatic stress syndrome, randomly shot at vehicles at the Valley River Center Mall parking lot, in Eugene.  Police caught up to him and chased him to Santa Clara.  Though Mason dropped his 9mm out the window, his refusal to respond to police instructions to exit the car and his erratic behavior within the car led the two policemen to shoot him multiple times.  Mason lived, but is now a paraplegic.  In a sad irony, Mason's father was a veteran of the Eugene police and had worked side-be-side with one of the shooting officers.  Yet again, even though Mason was well-trained in firearm usage and safety, guns don't belong in homes with mentally-unstable people!  LINK

12/27/10:  In the small town of Lowell, southeast of Eugene, Shawn Lorenzo Gamble, 36, had drank too much and fought with his stepfather, Jimmie Allen Montgomery, 62.  Montgomery threatened to shoot Gamble with his handgun, so Gamble tried to get his own gun, but was stopped by other family.  It didn't stop Gamble, though, who attacked Montgomery anyway.  The stepfather then made good on his threat, shooting Gamble, but Gamble didn't stop.  So Montgomery emptied his magazine into him, killing him.  It was ruled justified, but I wonder, if Montgomery hadn't made the first threat to protect himself with his gun, if things would have turned out differently.  LINK

Oh, and as a post-script, there was also THIS case (from 12/8/10) of a man who killed his landowner and buried her in the back yard.  So far they haven't revealed how she died, so I haven't counted it in the "tally" for 2010's shootings.

Did anyone other than myself notice that half of these shootings occurred in the last couple months of the year?   Was it something in the egg nog?

So there you have it, 2010 shootings.  Let's work together to make next year better, eh?