Portland Mayor Proposes New Gun Safety Initiatives
Portland Mayor Sam Adams on Friday August 20th, 2010 announced a request for public comment on five proposed gun safety initiatives. There will be a two week public comment period before any of the initiatives are finalized.
Statement from Mayor Adams:
“The illegal use of firearms is a long-standing community problem in the City of Portland. Changes to federal and state gun laws are needed. That is why I am a founding member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. At the state level, Ceasefire Oregon is advocating for common-sense gun safety laws. The Brady Campaign is working on gun education and lobbying on the national level.
But the enactment of state and federal gun safety laws is a slow and uncertain process. In the meantime, due to lax gun safety laws, cities like Portland get caught in the crossfire: literally and tragically.
During my first week as commissioner of the Portland Police Bureau, I requested that the City Attorney research potential changes to the Portland City Code to effectively reduce gun-related crimes. Federal and state laws govern most, but not all, gun-related issues.
Over the past four days, eight shootings have occurred in Portland.
Portland Police Bureau and the Office of Youth Violence Prevention, working in cooperation with other jurisdictions, have deployed additional resources to stop these activities. However, intervention is only part of the solution. A proactive, preventative strategy to limit guns from getting into the wrong hands and providing tougher penalties for gun-related crimes will play a critical role.
In summary, I am asking for public discussion on the following five gun safety initiatives:
- Impose a special curfew for juveniles who have been found by a court of law to have violated gun laws.
- Create new city crime of failure to control access to a firearm by a child
- Create new city crime of failure to report theft or loss of a firearm
- Increase penalties for possession of a loaded firearm in a public place
- Exclude people who have been found by a court of law to have violated firearms use or possession laws from areas of the City in which illegal use of firearms is markedly greater than other areas. Exclusions to be enforced through arrest for trespass, but with many variances available for necessary and non-harmful activities.
The attached draft Portland City Code provisions contain new or amended language that will assist law enforcement with the difficult job of limiting gun related crime.
Please view the draft by clicking here.
By Friday, September 3, 2010, please email me at mayorsam@portlandoregon.gov with any comments you have about the attached proposed local ordinance changes.”
Portland Mayor Adams Gun Safety Initiatives
State preemption of firearms laws means that 4 out of 5 of your new "ideas" cannot become valid law at the city level. As such, you're looking for input from people on the production of invalid, illegal laws. That's retarded. How did you get into office without a basic (and yes, knowing that you can't make local gun laws is basic) knowledge of your job?
The people who voted for you this time should be ashamed. The people who vote for you next election make goldfish look smart.
In his first sentence, Mayor Adams says that “The illegal use of firearms is a long-standing community problem in the City of Portland." He acknowledges that the problem behavior is already illegal.
In his second sentence the mayor asserts "Changes to federal and state gun laws are needed." Why? So that the problem behavior can be even more illegal?
Additionally, the creation of city laws to make them illegal seems redundant (and silly). If the problem beahvior is already illegal, what good do they expect to come from making it doubly illegal? If the criminals pay no heed to the existing state and federal laws, what logical reason could Mayor Adams have to think they will take his proposed city laws more seriously?
Logical reasoning is what Mayors Against Guns, Ceasefire Oregon, and the Brady Campaign are obviously lacking. All of these nonsense laws they keep trying to pass here and in other cities could only make sense if their real agenda is to incrementally disarm and/or criminalize every law-abiding gun owner.
It is obvious that Mayor Adams is attempting to disarm law abiding citizens and turn them into criminals in this latest misguided attempt at gun control. I oppose the proposed laws and suggest that The Mayor concentrate his energy on fixing the high rate of unemployment in Portland that has often turned good men into criminals who are attempting to provide for their families.