Everytown For Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action: Chuck Riley’s Victory Marks ‘Gun Sense Sweep’ in Oregon

(PORTLAND, OREGON)—The race for Oregon State District 15 was called yesterday for Chuck Riley, solidifying the pro-background check majority in the Oregon State Senate. Senator-elect Chuck Riley joins Senator-elect Sara Gelser in forming a pro-background check state legislature majority in 2015, which clears the most significant roadblock in Everytown for Gun Safety’s work over the past two years to close loopholes in state gun laws that make it easy for criminals and other dangerous people to find guns online and buy them from strangers with no background checks, no questions asked.

“Chuck Riley and his fellow gun sense leaders in the state legislature will work to protect Oregon’s families from gun violence,” said Anneliese Davis, a volunteer with the Oregon Chapter of Moms Demand Action, a project of Everytown for Gun Safety. “Moms have been canvassing door-to-door for weeks to educate voters about Bruce Starr’s dangerous opposition to criminal background checks on all gun sales. This week’s gun sense sweep proves what we’ve known all along – that Oregon voters support common-sense public safety measures that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.”

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund strategically invested $600,000 in Oregon to support grassroots organizing, direct mail, paid advertising and digital organizing to identify Gun Sense Voters and turn them out to vote. Moms Demand Action, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, launched an unprecedented effort to educate and mobilize gun sense voters in Oregon and hold accountable Senators Bruce Starr and Betsy Close, who oppose criminal background checks. In total, Everytown and Moms Demand Action made more than 57,000 contacts to Oregon voters.