Date: 11/1/2022
To: All League Members
From: Rebecca Gladstone, LWVOR President
Alice Bartelt, Action Committee Chair
Marge Easley, Gun Safety Portfolio Chair
ACTION ALERT: Measure 114 needs your help!
The latest polling shows that Measure 114 is too close to call, and the League has been asked by the Vote Yes on 114 campaign to spread the word to our members, friends, and families that the League, along with scores of other organizations, have strongly endorsed the measure. Measure 114 requires a permit-to-purchase a firearm and bans the future sale of large capacity magazines, with certain exceptions. Nine other states have enacted similar laws and have seen a reduction in firearm homicides and suicides.
Amidst a barrage of campaign rhetoric about the rise in crime in our state, it is important to note that gun violence is not just a Portland problem. A recent firearm injury report issued by the Gun Violence Prevention Center at Oregon Health and Science University points out that gun violence is a public health crisis affecting both urban and rural areas across Oregon. It found that “firearm injury emergency department visits increased from 459 in 2019 to 873 in 2021, a 90.2% increase. For people living in Oregon, as in the U.S. more broadly, the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic was magnified by the worsening impact of the firearm injury crisis.”
No single law can stop all gun violence, but Measure 114 is a proven way to save lives in our communities.
VOTE YES ON MEASURE 114!