Bend residents left chalk art, flowers and gifts at a makeshift memorial at Drake Park after a former student killed three children and a teacher at Silver Rail Elementary School. Oregon ranks as 12th in the nation for its gun safety laws, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. Those laws include banning guns at the state capitol and giving universities the authority to ban guns on campus. Oregon also bars domestic abusers from having guns while subject to restraining orders, and it prevents people who have committed certain violent misdemeanors from buying a firearm for up to four years. In 2023, the state also banned homemade firearms known as ‘ghost guns’ and 3D-printed guns. And yet, Oregon has experienced four mass shootings this year, with the latest taking place on Oct. 15 when a 16-year-old gunman climbed over a school fence, fired a shotgun through the glass panels of locked doors at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend and killed three children and a teacher before being tackled by another teacher and fatally shot by a local parent who followed him into the school. His mother legally purchased him the shotgun for his birthday, the Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
Despite having some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, some groups say Oregon needs to do more to protect Oregonians from gun violence. Measure held up in courts would prevent more gun violence, advocates say Oregon’s ranking takes into account Measure 114, which voters narrowly approved in 2022 to ban high-capacity magazines, requiring stricter background checks, permits and firearm safety training to purchase a gun. That measure hasn’t yet taken effect because it’s been tied up with court challenges. The measure is awaiting a final ruling from the Oregon Supreme Court. It would take effect in January 2028, Oregon lawmakers decided this year, if it is upheld. Gun control advocates say the measure is a key way to reduce gun violence.
Oregon doesn’t require people to have a permit to purchase a gun, only a background check. Licenses, however, are required for people wanting to conceal carry. Measure 114 would require that anyone purchasing a gun undergo a safety course before purchasing a firearm. ‘Had the mom in this case known she had to undergo a safety course to get her weapon, maybe she would have known to secure her weapon,’ Amie Wexler, executive director of the Portland-based Alliance for a Safe Oregon, told the Capital Chronicle. ‘She would have understood Oregon law better and not allowed unfettered access to a 16-year-old who had these nihilistic online tendencies.’ Measure 114 would also close a loophole that allows people to buy a gun even if their background check isn’t completed within three days. If the measure is upheld, it would require a completed background check before a firearms dealer can sell a gun.
‘This is something that Oregon voters told the legislature you need to do this,’ said Penny Okamoto, director of gun control advocacy group Ceasefire Oregon Action Fund. Firearm industry should pay for prevention programs, advocate says Investments into school security aren’t sufficient, Okamoto said, saying shooters can shoot their way past glass doors and metal detectors. Governments should create agencies that investigate and come out with recommendations to prevent shootings the same way they explore recommendations for people to respond to earthquakes, fires and tsunamis, she said, and the firearm industry should pay for these prevention programs the same way chemical companies pay for cleanup at Superfund sites. Oregon is one of 22 states with red flag laws, meaning a person may petition to a judge to temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a danger to themselves or others. Oregon, where 80% of all firearm deaths are suicides, should take a step further and allow people to report themselves to a judge should they have suicidal tendencies, Okamot
