SALEM, Ore. – The Oregon chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, applauded House Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson for introducing House Bill 2013, legislation that would keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.
Under current Oregon law, convicted domestic abusers and stalkers are prohibited from having guns, but the law does not require them to turn in guns they already own. This means that many convicted abusers, who are legally prohibited from possessing firearms, come home to guns they already own when returning home from court or after completing a short sentence.
Legislation introduced yesterday, HB 2013, would protect families in Oregon by requiring possessors who are either convicted of crimes of domestic violence, stalking, or subject to final orders of protection to turn in their guns immediately. Removing guns from abusers and stalkers is crucial, as access to a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed, and according to the Oregon Violent Death Reporting System, 62 percent of intimate partner homicide victims in Oregon were killed with a firearm between 2011-2015.
“No family should have to experience the pain of having a loved one shot and killed by their abuser,” said Madeleine Garcelon, a member of the Everytown Survivor Network and a volunteer with the Oregon chapter of Moms Demand Action whose 36-year-old daughter, Nicolette Elias, was shot and killed by her ex-husband before he took his own life with a gun in 2014. “I know firsthand that guns and domestic violence are truly a deadly combination. Oregonians deserve to know that domestic abusers and stalkers won’t have access to the guns they might already own.”
