Hales calls on lawmakers to end 'national crisis' of gun violence
PORTLAND, Ore. – Mayor Charlie Hales on Monday called on Congress and the Oregon Legislature to take steps to end illegal gun violence.
"This is a national crisis," Hales said. "When is Congress going to do something about it? The answer needs to be now and I plan to work to make sure it is."
Friday, Hales joined the group Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which includes hundreds of mayors from around the country. “Mayors in small towns and major cities all over the country are joining together in this cause of common sense,” Hales said.
“We need a law in this nation that requires that every gun buyer have a criminal background check. We need to get military-style assault weapons off of our streets. We need to get high-capacity ammunition clips off of our streets and we need to make gun trafficking a federal crime,” Hales added.
“Those are things we can do, and that we should do to make our society safer and make Portland the kind of place where these tragedies are less likely to happen.”
Hales admitted his knowledge of Oregon gun law was lacking. During the news conference, Hales said he thought gun registration was a requirement in Oregon, which is not the case.
"You notice that the Mayors Against Illegal Guns are not trotting out a specific piece of legislation, but a set of objectives," he said. "I share those set of objectives, and I'm going to call on those legislators to take up that issue and sweat the details you're talking about."
Hales also called on the Oregon Legislature, which convened Monday, to make ending gun violence a priority. He said he called on national and state leaders to make changes because the City of Portland has limited power.
Hales said he plans to travel to Washington, D.C. on Friday to meet with other mayors in the group.
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said Monday said he is reviewing a range of proposals to reduce gun violence, including executive actions that would bypass Congress. Obama said he would present his plan within days.
“I'm confident there are some steps we can take that don't require legislation and that are within my authority as president,” Obama said in a news conference in the East Room of the White House.
Monday marked the one-month anniversary of the deadly school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
"We should stay angry that those people were lost to gun violence - in ways that might be prevented by common sense regulations - and that's what we're talking about here," said Hales.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Whats Hales ever going to do? Â Nothing. Â Just another 'mouth' for Portland.
I love this.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wt1Zy_ASNyA#!
@RalphCramden ... actually a good youtube...thanks...
I expected to be disappointed in some of Hales projects but not so soon and certainly not taking away our gun rights and stomping all over the second amendment...guess he doesn't understand it's the out-law-types that's the problem...not the law-abiding people just wanting and needing some protection from the non-law-abiding...sorry I donated to his campaign...silly move Hales. How about taking care of the things wrong with our city and leaving our rights alone? OR, maybe you just want a vacation and a trip to DC...hope that is it...
Michael Bloomberg calls up Charlie Hales
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MB: Hello⦠is this Charlie Hales?
CH: Yes
MB: Mike Bloomberg here, I hear you are the new man in charge out in Portland
CH: Uhâ¦Yea.
MB: Good goodâ¦. Wanted to talk to you about our group Mayors against Gun Violence, have you heard of us?
CH: A little.
MB: Yea well Iâm a New Yorker, and a Billionaire, that means I know almost everything and I am going to help you give the people of Oregon everything they want, but donât know they want.
CH: Like what?
MB: Well we are going to start with gun control. I hear it is like the wild west out there.
CH: Actually we have some of the lowest crime rates in the United States.
MB: Whoa whoa whoa⦠Never say low crime rates when we are talking about gun grabbing!!!
CH: I was just saying that according to FBI data Oregon has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the nation.
MB: Sounds like you didnât read that data correctly. I bet you even think there is gun registration in Oregon.
CH: Isnât there?
MB: Not yet but we will put that on our list too.
CH: OK
MB: Look Iâd like you to come on out here and meet with some of the other members of the group. Iâve got a s**t pot of money, we can sit around and have a few drinks while we teach you how to impose your will on the little people of the world. I think my buddy Elliot Spitzer is coming; he is bringing some women he knows.
CH: Sounds like a good time Iâll see you there.
MB: One more question⦠What is the biggest soda you can buy in Oregon?
CH: I donât know.
MB: Well talk about that later.
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Mr Mayor,
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I don't need any man or document to tell me I have the right to defend my life. Lets remember and this goes for anyone in portland. You are morelikely to be shot by the POLICE in portland than by a bad guy. The portland Police shoot 50% of the people shot in the city every year. As we all know many of those shooting were questionable. I am a legal gun owner. I have a CHP and I do carry a gun most of the time. Lets uphold the constitution. One more thing assault weapons were banned back in 1986. Can we stop using that term?
Kinda wish you still had that gay guy?
 @Razor1 NO
So you want to ban "assault weapons", Mr. Mayor? Then you need to make everything under the sun illegal. Here are the definitions of assault from Merriam Webster:
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1 a: a violent physical or verbal attack
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  b: a military attack usually involving direct combat with enemy forces
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  c: a concerted effort (as to reach a goal or defeat an adversary)
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2 a: a threat or attempt to inflict offensive physical contact or bodily harm on a person (as by lifting a fist in a threatening manner) that puts the person in immediate danger of or in apprehension of such harm or contact
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Ignoring definition 1b and 1c as irrelevant to the issue (at issue is whether or not civilians should be able to own "assault weapons"), we can see that anything - even parts of the human body - can be used as an "assault weapon". Really, Mr. Mayor? Do you really believe you can legally prevent me from having hands, feet, and teeth?
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@Fed up Fed I am fully aware the term "assault weapon" is usually applied to various automatic or semi-automatic firearms. As usual, you are missing my point entirely. To be completely honest, any weapon used in an assault is an assault weapon.
 @Fed up Fed  @Playanekes  @Fed  @theprodigal Fed up:Perhaps you should stop.You seem to think that the bulk of the military would come down on us,not so,even though you would have some that would say"I was just following orders".How many of those boys on those ships would traverse those guns on you people?
 @Fed up Fed  @theprodigal The term changes into whatever the liberal gun-grabbers want it to be. Feinstein wants it to be anything with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip. Such as, a pistol.They don't mind handing AR-15s to teenage sailors to point at the public whenever the Navy fleet comes to Portland, though, do they? Last time I went past the Rose Festival with my police escort, past the ships, there was a kid young enough to be my son standing at what looked like a mounted M-60 machine gun. One misfire could have raked I-5 and east Portland for blocks.The government doesn't trust the citizens so when it comes to Portland it brandishes M-16s and machine guns. Meanwhile, they're trying to take ours.Nuh uh. Molon Labe.
When Lord Mayor Hales can't remember that there is no gun registration here, it tells me that he's being fed a bunch of crap from outside the state, and his ability to think for himself is compromised.
I just can't figure out how Charlie is going to be Mayor/Governor/President/King and Savior of the World. All whilst making Portland function flawlessly on $0.50/Day. Big job ole boy.
The govt wants to slowly take away our guns, meanwhile they are arming the fed agencies like the EPA and NEA and Obamas private militia so when they go to the one world govt no one can stop them. Â I know most of PDX is a bunch of liberals that probably would have voted to stay under British rule back in 1776 like NY did, so I wouldnt expect them to agree, much less understand what I am talking about. Â Freedom is always only one generation away from extinction, stop being complacent or we'll lose it...!
@Your Name Here . Well, the post at least has acceptable grammar and spelling, despite the nutso ideas. Nobody has ever said the government is going to take away your precious guns. Waaah! Waaah! Of course, if you Ruby Ridge or Waco whacko on us, you might get an unpleasant visit, but then you will have brought it on yourself.
 @Mechanic  @Your Hitler and Stalin never told the masses they would take away guns either. Then they averred that we would all be safer by instituting "reasonable" measures, Like the guns grabbers here, they sought to make the regulations ever more "reasonable." I'm sure a great many of the 40 MILLION civilian victims firmly believed nothing so sinister could ever happen in such a "modern" society - until it was too late.
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Pick a regime, any regime, where mass murder, genocide and persecutions have occurred. More often than not, the regime was voted in by the people on the promise of "hope and change," or similarly worded rhetoric. Then, invariably, one of the first steps toward totalitarian rule and subsequent massacre was the disarming of the populace - usually starting out as "reasonable" gun control.
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In many, if not most cases, the initial "reasonable" regulation was well-intentioned. But the end result was the same.
 @Mechanic  @Your  Don't you just hate when people say "nutso" things? Like, oh, I don't know, claiming that there is a ban on the private ownership of fully automatic weapons.
Mr. Mayor, remember why we are allowed to have guns in the first place. Â Then tell me why I should not have an assault weapon for that reason. Â What do you expect from a city that elected Sam, now we got a guy that doesn't even know the law, or bother to look it up before opening his mouth. Â Â
@Your Name Here . Oh, he knows the law. He just wants, AS MOST AMERICANS DO, to change it a bit.
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 @Fed up Fed  @theprodigal I'm sure they had in mind a "living document" whereby someday, one person or party would somehow be deluded into thinking they had the power to destroy the nation financially, subserviate said constitution to a corrupt world government AND remove the tools for the citizenry to protect themselves "from ALL enemies, foreign and domestic."
@Fed up Fed Let us not forget, Fed Up Fred, the Constitution was written after the American colonies had risen up against a tyrannical government and won their independence. The Founding Fathers were all too aware of what a tyrannical government was capable of and wanted to whatever they could to ensure that type of government did NOT take root in the new nation.
@Fed up Fed The purpose of the Second Amendment is to protect the people from a tyrannical government.
@Fed up Fed Show me where in the Second Amendment it states membership in the militia is a requirement for the ability to keep and bear arms?
According to FBI data, Oregon had one murder with a rifle in 2010. ONE. Unknown whether it was even an "assault rifle" or not, FBI doesn't track to that leve. ONE.
@HuskyKMA An d the universal background checks and limits on clip capacity will take care of that other little problem in time, too.
@HuskyKMA   Well, when one side the argument is basing their case on nothing  more than emotion...... cold hard facts really don't matter.
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@Fed up Fed  """"" As a resident of the home, he had easy, lawful access to his mom's guns,""""""
So how exactly do you know that Adam had easy access to his Mom's guns? you know for certain the gun safe (storage)  was not locked or he had a key to it?
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@Fed up Fed    """"you people have no solutions.""""
I have just come to the reality that there is evil people, take away guns and evil people will still do bad things. Just look at England, no guns but they still have a HIGHER violent crime rate than the US. and taking away gun rights of  abiding citizens doesn't do jack squat to stop gun related crimes.
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your # 1, I could go with some reasonable increases in background checks and requirements in aquiring gun .... How do you define "legally purchased" cause you were way off on Adam. Â
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2, given how quick magazines can be swapped out, quite frankly in most cases the death count mostly likely would not have changed even if the shooter was using a hand gun.
"""""", including 9-year old Christina-Taylor Green""""" so what is the significance of this child over any of the other un-named victims?
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3, I'm not sure I agree with your stats, but I would support stiffer penalties for those skirting gun sale laws.
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4, """""but thankfully the shooter was incompetent.""""" that he was, but you conveniently ignore the citizen with a gun pointed at the shooter
""""""80% of all mass shootings are committed with a rifle, and that's why assault rifles are receiving a long hard look. """"""
So why don't you give a rats ass about THOUSANDS of deaths each year by hand guns. Why are you concentrating on such a low number (comparatively) than to hand gun deaths??
""""Â killer who firing a legally purchased assault rifle"""""
exactly how do you define "legally purchased" ? cause if you think Adam was firing a a legally purchased weapon, your definition of legally purchased is really effed up.
@Fed up Fed Well, the wingnuts are really not focusing on any of the arguments we are trying to put forward. The set up the straw man ("You're gonna take my guns away! Waah!), and try to knock it down, pretending that is what the argument is all about. It is not. Never has been. You have made some excellent points though. Tank you for taking the time (and for taking the time to learn how to compose a sentence setting down a coherent thought).
This is insane. These politicians need to get to work fixing the real issues and stop trying to distract us with a ''national crisis'' that doesn't exist. They're like cockroaches. All scurrying after the same crumb.
 @Lips We've had more "national crisis" moments in the past four years than I can remember ever before. And, I am old enough to remember. Seems like one per month, what with immigration, gun control, debt, recession, defense, budget, deficit, ad nauseum. Couple with these "national crisis" moments political games, divisive rhetoric, and a distinct lack of leadership; makes quite a recipe for disaster.
 @Saltire Only four years? I wonder if it's even worth being an audience to? Seriously. It's like soap operas. You can quit watching for ten, even twenty years, and pick right back up, right where it left off. Someone shoot me an email if they ever figure things out.Â
 @Your Name Here .  @Lips  @Saltire Electing better ones. Okay. Better yet, get better candidates to run.
 @Your Name Here .  @Saltire Oh yes, I really, really think that. I've been staring at my inbox for years...
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Hales isn't my Mayor. He's the annoying neighbor. At first I was happy for Portland. Now I realize I would have been happy had Portland elected a baboon. Anything to get rid of Adams. Now... well, it's painfully obvious that he's an idiot. Easily distracted by the current hot button. Keep trying Portland. Oh, btw, my mayor didn't join this new club. He's busy running our city, not our lives.
 @Lips  @Saltire Even soaps get cancelled eventually.  If you dont like what the politicians are doing then elect better ones.  Do you really think if you sit around long enough they will figure things out and shoot you an email?
Only fools and idiots would believe more laws would stop criminals or the mentally ill from breaking the law. They break the laws we have now. Why would anyone think more laws would make any difference?
It is very disappointing for intelligent mankind to watch them display their ignorance.
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@Freedom1267 are you an anarchist?
What timing - sort of like every other politician across the county that is climbing on to the same wagon that will crash. Not one politician has even addressed the weapons that have been stashed or in the hands of banger's - there are not officers in this country to even begin to coral the alleged problem. Wait a second, pandering to the few makes great press when it comes time for re-election. Â
Heres some facts on gun control in Australia, its pretty scary. Â http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fGaDAThOHhA
 @riderofthelegend This has been around for a bit and folks need to read PRAVDA - the Russian newspaper that tells us to never give up our guns based on personal experience(s)...
Look at what the Germans did.
So lets see here is this guy going to rename 39th?  I hope so.
 @FreerideNOT We could just call it... hmm, I dunno... '39th Ave'?
 @ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE  @FreerideNOT  Hmm... 39th. That has a very familiar ring to it...  Wait! I know! We could sell it to the lefties as the 39th Parallel: Gateway to the Worker's Paradise.
Yeah but then la raza and Sammy's crowd would be protesting
 @FreerideNOT Good.
What's this 'national crisis' of gun violence? Â Violent crimes are the lowest that they've been in 30 years.
 @UtterReality They're not interested in the ongoing national crises of molestation, abuse, child neglect, sexual predation and domestic violence because it doesn't draw as much ratings.
Mr hales would love to ask you why the city lets black kids kill each other as gangs every summer do and do nothing about it as remember the one who was found on rocky butte and lots more last summer but if 2 whites get  killed as shot at mall which happens one in a million years and the city goes nuts to stop the gun violents.Is it because they are white as it seems that way.